
Class JlBiLS^ 



Book. 



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mm°i^lAi 



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J6t 



THE STORY OF THE NATIONS 



OCTAVO, ILLUSTRATED. I'ER VOL., f I.50 



THE EARLIER VOLUMES WILL BK 

THE STORY OF GREECE. By Prof. Jas. A. Harrison 

THE STORY OF ROME. By Arthur Gilman 

THE STORY OF THE JEWS. By Prof. Jas. K. Hosmer 

THE STORY OF CHALDEA. By Z. Ragozin 

THE STORY OF NORWAY. By Prof. H. H. Boyesen 

THE STORY OF GERMANY. By S. Baring-Gould 

THE STORY OF SPAIN. By E. E and Susan Hale 

THE STORY OF HUNGARY. By Prof. A. VAMBfiRV 

THE STORYOF THE SARACENS. By Arthur Gilman 

THE STORY OF ASSYRIA. By Z. Ragozin 

THE STORY OF THE GOTHS. By Henry Bradley 

THE STORY OF THE NORMANS. By Sarah O. Jewett 

For prospectus of the series see end of this volume 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON 



Ij.he %ioty^ of the ^jalions 



THE 



STORY OF HUNGARY 



BY 



ARMINIUS VAMBERY 



PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BUDA-PESTH 



WITH THE COLLABORATION OF 

LOUIS HEILPRIN 




NEW YORK & LONDON 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

Cljc ^nickubockcr ^ress 

1886 



COPYRIGHT BY 

G. r. PUTNAM'S SONS 



9 



\ 

V" 



Press of 

G. P.- Putnam's Sons 

New York 




PREFACE. 



In complying with the request of the pubUshers 
of the Nations Series to write the Story of Hungary, 
I undertook a task which was out of the range of 
my previous Hterary undertakings, which had for the 
most part been devoted to the geography, history, 
and philology of Central Asia. The principal reason 
which induced me to enter upon what is for me a 
new literary field, was my desire to make American 
and English readers acquainted with the record of 
my native country, and to present the various phases 
of the history of Hungary in the light best suited to 
attract the attention of the citizens of England and 
of the Great Republic, to whose opinion we Hun- 
garians are by no means indifferent. 

My willingness to prepare the present volume was 
further due to the fact, that it was not the History, but 
the Story of Hungary, I was asked to write ; an under- 
taking in which I had simply to deal with the salient 
events, the most noteworthy personalities, and the 
most thrilling episodes in a narrative which covered 
nearly a thousand years, and was not called upon to 
consider the philosophical side of the history, or to 
discuss the deeper-lying motives or the less signifi- 
cant details of national action. 



IV ST OR V OF HUNGAR V. 

For a task such as that presented to me, I con- 
cluded that the knowledge and the ideas of a Hun- 
garian man of letters were not inadequate ; I have, 
nevertheless, had recourse, in certain instances, to the 
assistance of writers who had given special attention 
to our national history, with the idea of making as 
accurate as possible this t/ie first Story of Hungary 
written in English. 

The distance between Buda-Pesth and New York 
rendered it impossible for me to give my personal 
attention to the proofs while the volume was being 
put into type. The proof-reading was therefore en- 
trusted to the care of Mr. Louis Heilprin, a gentle- 
man who is evidently thoroughly familiar with the 
subject, and to whom I desire to express my obliga- 
tions not only for the care he has taken with the 
proof-reading, but also for his attention in securing 
in my English text the most accurate and most 
effective forms of expression. 

I take this opportunity of expressing, also, my 
thanks for the kind cooperation of my countrymen, 
Messrs. Sebestyen, Csanki, Acsady, and Vargha. 

A. V. 

Buda-Pesth, August, 1886. 




CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The Country and the People of Hungary, 1-17 

A bird's-eye view, I — Carpathian mountains, 5 — Water sys- 
tem, 7 — Climate, 9 — Various nationalities, 13 — Constitu- 
tion, 16. 

II. 

Hungary before the Occupation by the Ma- 
gyars . . . . . . 18-26 

Prehistoric times, 18 — Pannonia and Dacia, 20 — The Mar- 
comanni, 21 — Huns, 23 — Gepidse, 24 — Bajan, prince of the 
Avars, 25. 

III. 

The Origin of the Hungarians . ' . 27-41 

Nimrod and his descendants, 27 — Two kindred races, 29 — 
Cradle of the Magyar race, 32 — Country between the Volga 
and Danube, 33 — The seven dukes, 36 — Invasion of Hun- 
gary, 37. — Defeat of Svatopluk, 39. 



IV. 

The Reign of the Dukes .... 42-52 

Arpad the first duke, 42 — Defeat of King Berengar, 44 — 
Battle of Presburg, 45 — Battle of Merseburg, 47 — Melan- 
choly Magyars, 49 — Duke Geyza, 51. 

V 



VI THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

V. 

PAGE 

The Conversion to Christianity . . 53-64 
Shamanism, 53 — Missionaries, 55 — Baptism of Stephen, 58 
— Discontent, 59 — Rigorous laws, 61 — Changes in manners 
and customs, 63 

VI. 
St. Stephen, the First King of Hungary. 65-96 

St. Stephen's Day, 66 — Influence of religious ideas, Gg — 
Character of Stephen, 71 — Embassy to Rome, 74 — St. 
Stephen's crown, 75 — Papal bull, 77 — Christian church the 
corner-stone, 79 — Cathedral of Stuhlweissenburg, 81 — In- 
crease of royal authority, 83 — Revenues, 85 — Prosperity of 
the country, 87 — Attack of Conrad, 89 — Stephen's advice to 
his son, 91 — Stephen canonized, 96. 

VII. 

« 

The Kings of the House of Arpad . 97-150 

Wealth of the Arpads, 98 — Charter of the Golden Bull, 99 — 
Vatha, 102 — Envoys of Henry III., 103 — The brothers' 
feud, 105 — Power of paganism broken, 107 — Battle of Mo- 
gyorod, 109 — Increase of population, 11 1 — Religious move- 
ment in Europe, 114 — The *" bookish " king, 115 — Struggle 
between uncle and nephew, 117 — Bela's oath, 119 — 
Royal chancery, 121 — Battle on the Drave, 124 — Andrew 
II., 125 — Complaints of the nobles, 127 — Golden Bull, 
129 — Mongol invasion, 132 — Plain of Theiss, 135 — Battle of 
Muhi, 139 — Bela's flight, 141 — Colonization, 142 — Frederic, 
Duke of Austria, 144 — Alliance of houses of Hapsburg and 
Arpad, 145 — Ladislaus IV., 147 — The sun of the Arpads 
sets, 150. 

VIII. 
The Anjous in Hungary . . . 151-193 

The Czech party victorious, 152 — Otto's march through Buda, 
153 — Charles Robert of Anjou crowned, 154 — Czech depre- 
dations, 155 — Battle of Kassa, 157 — Zach family condemned. 



CONTENTS. VU 

PAGE 

1 60 — Wallachian campaign, 161 — Louis the Great, 164. — 
Assassination of Andrew, 165— The Pope's sentence, 167— 
Successes in Servia, i6g — Europe threatened by a new foe, 
i7i_Cultivation of the arts of peace, 174— End of union 
between Poland and Hungary, 175— Coronation of Charles, 
17- — Sigismund, ruler of Hungary, 179 — Execution of Kont, 
181 — Approach of Bajazet, 183— Election of new king, 185 
— King of Hungary becomes Emperor of Germany, 187 — 
Church of Rome, 189— Siege of Galambocz, 191 — Death of 

Sigismund, 193. 

IX. 

John Hunyadi ; the Great Champion of Chris- 
tianity ...... 194-216 

Every noble a born soldier, 195— Battle of Semendria, 196 
— Heroism of Simon Kemeny, 199 — Entrance of Turkish 
army, 201— League against the Turks, 203 — Terms of peace, 
205— Battle of Varna, 207— Defeat of the Hungarians, 209 
Invasion of Albania, 211 — John Capistrano, 213— Death of 

Hunyadi, 215. 

X. 

King Matthias . . . • . 217-256 

Personal courage, 220 — Wars with the Poles and Czechs, 
222— The Black Troop, 224— Siege of Vienna, 225 — 
Severe disciplinarian, 229 — Character of Matthias, 231 — 
Embassy to Charles VIII. , 233— Brilliant court receptions, 
235— "An Earthly Paradise," 238— New laws, 240— King 
Matthias the Just, 241— Critical position, 243— Wealth, 245 
— Renaissance, 247— Court dinners, 249— Library, 251— 
Palace at Buda, 253 — Death of Matthias, 256. 

XL 
The Period of National Decline, and the Dis- 
astrous Battle of MohacsT . 257-289 
A dark page, 257 — John Corvinus, 259 — Deputation of Ulad- 
islaus, 261— Disorders of the times, 263— A distinguished 
brawl, 267 — Condition of the Hungarian peasants, 269— 
Peasant war, 271— Popular feeling, 273— Indifference of 



viii THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

PAGE 

the king, 275 — Frivolous amusements, 277 — Fuggers, 279 
— Kalandos League, 281 — Siege of Shabatz, 283 — King 
Louis roused from his lethargy, 285 — Battle of Mohacs, 287 
— Hungarians pay a heavy penalty, 289. 



XII. 

The Turkish World, and the Rise of Protes- 
tantism IN Hungary . . . 290-336 

Sack of Buda, 293 — A nation with tw^o kings, 295 — Ambi- 
tious schemes of Solyman, 297— Gallant George Szondi, 299 
— Stephen Losonczy, 301 — Temesvar taken by the Turks, 
305 — Depressing days, 307 — Heroic defence of Erlau, 308 
— Plans of Solyman, 311 — He lays siege to Szigetvar, 313 — 
Wearisomeness of the siege, 315 — Fall of Szigetvar, 317 — 
The poet Balassa, 319 — Spread of Luther's ideas, 322 — Laws 
against Lutherans, 323 — Teachings of Calvin, 325 — 'I'he anti- 
reformation movement, 327 — Nicholas Zrinyi, 329 — Last 
great campaign of the Osmanlis, 331 — Rout of the Turks, 
333 — Peace of Szatmar, 335 — Desolation of Hungary, 336. 

XIII. 
The Austrian Rule (1526-1780) . . 337-373 

Ferdinand elevated to the throne of Hungary, 338 — Turks 
averse to increase of Hapsburg power, 339 — Vienna the seat 
of government, 341 — Obstacle to Germanizing schemes, 343 
— Rebellion, 345 — Peace of Vienna, 346 — Jesuits gain a 
foothold, 347 — Gabriel Bethlen, 348 — Old policy of the 
Transylvanian princes, 350 — Disturbance of the "balance 
of power," 351 — Gloomy outlook for the Hungarians, 353 — 
General conspiracy, 355 — Kurucz-Labancz era, 357 — Nego- 
tiations begun, 358 — Siege of Vienna raised, 359 — Bloody 
'I'ribunal of Eperjes, 360 — Colonization of the Alfold, 361 
— Oppressive taxes, 362 — Francis Rakoczy II., 363 — New 
rising of the people, 364 — Compact of Szatmar, 367 — Inaug- 
uration of new policy, 369 — Maria Theresa's appeal, 370 — 
Gratitude of the queen, 371 — Social revolution, 372. 



CONTENTS. ix 



XIV. 



The Emperor Joseph II. — The National Re- 
action AND THE Napoleonic Wars, 374-399 

A king refuses to be crowned, 375 — Imbued with eighteenth- 
century views, 386 — German made the ofhcial language, 379 
— Shocks the prejudices of the people, 381 — Crown removed 
to Vienna, 382 — War declared against Turkey, 385 — Succes- 
sion of Leopold II., 387 — Hungary declared an independent 
country, 389 — Laws securing religious liberty, 390 — Arbi- 
trary government of Francis I, 391 — Hungarian Jacobins, 
392 — Echo of the French ideas, 394— Liberal leaders arrested, 
395 — Bloody executions, 396 — Main functions of the diets, 
397 — Constitution ignored, 398 — Levy of recruits, 399. 

XV. 

SzECHENYi, Kossuth, and the Struggle for 

Liberty i:^ 1848-1849 . . . 400-440 
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 400 — Stephen Szechenyi, 
402 — Congress of Vienna, 404 — Speaks in Hungarian, 406 — 
Publication of " Credit," 409 — Introduction of horse-racing, 
410 — Danube Steam Navigation Company, 411 — Louis 
Kossuth, 412 — Leaders of public opinion, 414 — Censorship 
of the press, 415 — Kossuth's imprisonment, 416 — Pesti 
Hirlap, 417 — Attacks on Kossuth, 418 — Policy of the Vien- 
nese government, 420 — Revolutions of 1848, 421 — Talpra 
Magyar, 422— Reforms of the diet, 423 — Hungary a modern 
state, 424 — Rebellion of Croatians, Wallachs, and Serbs, 
Ofih—Honveds, ii^2.'] — Vote for troops and funds, 428 — Death 
of Szechenyi, 429 — Invasion of Windischgratz, 430 — Klapka 
achieves his first triumph, 431 — Alliance between Francis 
Joseph and the Czar, 432 — Surrender of Vilagos, 433 — Per- 
secution of the patriots, 434 — Work of reconciliation, 435 
— Austria- Hungary, 436 — Pardon for political offenders, 440. 




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



SALLY FROM FORTRESS OF sziGETVAR . Frontispiece 

SELF-IMMOLATION OF SZONDI ..... xiv 

DANUBE FROM THE RUINS OF VISEGRAD ... 3 

ICE GROTTO OF DEM^NFALVA ..... 5 

BORDERS OF THE DANUBE . . . . . 7 

BUDA-PESTH . . . . . . . .II 

COACHMAN . . . . . ... 12 

HUNGARIAN TYPES ....... 13 

CHILDREN FROM THE DISTRICT OF THE SAVE . . I5 

A " KOLA " 17 

ROMAN AND DACIANS, FROM TRAJAN's COLUMN . I9 

A ROMAN TEMPLE . . . . . . .21 

HUNGARIAN SHEPHERD . . . . . • 3^ 

ELECTION OF ALMOS, THE FIRST DUKE . • • 35 

ARPAD TAKES POSSESSION OF HUNGARY . . -43 

BAPTISM OF ST. STEPHEN -57 

CORONATION OF ST. STEPHEN ... .67 

THE PEOPLE SEDUCED BY VATHA CLAIM THE RE- 
ESTABLISHMENT OF PAGANISM .... 
DUEL BETWEEN ST. LADISLAUS AND AKERS 
B^LA IV. RETURNS TO HIS COUNTRY, DEVASTATED 

BY THE MONGOLS 

CASTLE OF ARVA 

CATHEDRAL OF GRAN ...... 

xi 



lOI 

113 

143 

153 
163 



xu 



rilE STORY OF HUNGARY. 



CASTLE OF BETZKO . . . 

CASTLE OF HUNYAD 

PRESBURG .... 

FORTRESS OF BUDA . 

RUINS OF VISEGRAD 

JELLACHICH SQUARE, AGRAM . 

HEROIC DEFENCE OF ERLAU 

pasha's HOUSE 

HUNGARIAN PEASANTS IN AN INN 

A CSIKOS ..... 

HUNGARIAN PEASANTS 

PEASANT GIRL FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF BUDA 

PESTH 
HUNGARIAN PEASANT 
HUNGARIAN PORTER (dOOR-KEEPEr) 
SLOVAK WOMAN AND CHILDREN 
GYPSY HUTS 
OLD GYPSY WOMAN . 
HALT OF GYPSIES 
GYPSIES AND LADY . 
HOUSE AT KRAPINA 
HUNGARIAN GYPSY . 
HUNGARIAN LADY . 
woman's HEAD-DRESS 
CARTS 
BARKS ON DANUBE . 



173 
196 

219 

227 

309 

319 
321 

349 

365 

371 

377 

ZH 
401 

403 

405 
419 

423 
425 
435 

437 

439 
440 





SELF-IMMOLATION OF SZONDI. (Seep. 3OI.) 




THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE OF HUNGARY. 

Alexander Petofi, the great Hungarian poet, 
in one of his beautiful poems, sings thus of his na- 
tive land : 

" If the earth be God's crown 
Our country is its fairest jewel." 

And truly were we able to ascend the airy heights 
and obtain a bird's-eye view of Hungary, we would 
fain admit that it is one of the fairest and most 
blessed spots on the face of the earth. 

In the Northwest of Hungary, on the banks of the 
Danube, begins the mountainous region known under 
the name of the Carpathian range, which for beauty 
is not surpassed by the Alps, and in extent fairly 
rivals them. This mountain range, encircling like a 
gigantic evergreen wreath one half of the country^ 
extends all along its northern boundary and, after 
enclosing the eastern portion of it, stretches west- 
ward to where it is intersected by the waters of the 
Danube, not terminating there, however, but branch- 

I 



2 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

ing off into the countries lying along the lower course 
of that river. 

The whole range of the Carpathians is character- 
ized throughout its immensely long course by con- 
siderable breadth, forming at some places quite a 
hilly country and high plateaus, as, for instance, in 
Transylvania which, although properly belonging to 
Hungary, formerly enjoyed a sort of independence 
under its own name. This territory is covered al- 
most entirely by the Carpathians, but, of course, 
designated here by different names. 

We shall proceed now in due order. 

In the Northwest, there where the Danube enters 
Hungarian territory near Deveny, the mountain 
chain begins, under the name of the Northwestern 
Carpathians ; these, describing the shape of a half 
moon, extend from Presburg (Pozsony) to the Her- 
nad-Tarcza valley. Formerly three groups only 
were mentioned in connection with this section : 
namely, the Tatra, Fatra, and Matra, a representa- 
tion of which, as well as of the four rivers, the Dan- 
ube, Theiss, Drave, and Save, is embodied in the 
arms of the country, whence Hungary is designated 
as *' the country of the three mountains and four 
rivers." The Northwestern Carpathians are, how- 
ever, a gigantic mountain mass of immense bulk, 
subdivided into several distinct ranges. Of these 
one, the Northwestern border mountain-range, start- 
ing near the Danube in Presburg County and extend- 
ing in the shape of a wide arch in a northeastern 
direction as far as the sources of the Arva river, 
divides Hungary from Moravia, Silesia, and Galicia. 




DANUBE FROM THE RUINS OF VISEGRAD. 



4 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

This ridge is constantly rising, and reaches the high- 
est elevation at its northern edge. Another range is 
the Little Krevan, which begins in Arva County, and 
extends through the flatlands between the Vag and 
Nyitra rivers. East of this are the Gomor mountain- 
range, famous for its stalactitic caves, including Agg- 
telek; the Matra range, extending from Miskolcz 
to Vacz ; and the loftiest of all, the High Tatra, 
whose highest peaks are those of Jegvolgy, Gerlach- 
falva, and Lomnicz, rising to an altitude of between 
8,000 and 9,000 feet. The mountains belonging to 
this group are snow-covered, and what renders them 
peculiarly interesting are the so-called tengerszemek 
(ey^es of the sea), limpid lakes of unfathomable 
depth, which, according to popular belief, are con- 
nected with the sea, and about which a good many 
old-time legendary tales are current amongst the 
people. These lakes are met with at the height 
of 1,900 metres above the level of the sea. 

That range of mountains which extends eastwards 
from the Hernad-Tarcza valley to the southeastern 
angle of Marmaros County is called the, Northeastern 
Carpathians. It includes the Wooded Carpathians 
and the Eperjes-Tokay range, in the southern part 
of which, the Hegyalja, the king of the wines, the 
famous Tokay wine, is produced. 

The southeastern chain of the Carpathians divides 
where Marmaros County, Transylvania, and Buko- 
vina converge into an angle, forming several main 
lines which enclose the territory of Transylvania 
in an almost quadrangular shape and give it the 
character of a high plateau. The name of this group 



THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 



5 



is the Southeastern Carpathians. Parts of it are the 
Transylvanian northern and eastern border ranges ; 
the Hargita range, with the remarkable Mount 
Biidos, containing several caves from which issue 
strong gases, and the beautiful lake of St. Anna at a 
height of 950 metres ; the southern border range, the 
largest and most massive portion of the Carpathian 







ICE-GROTTO OF DEMENYFALVA. 

mountains ; the mountain group of the Banate and 
the mineral mountain range of the Banate, the latter 
owing its name to the gold, silver, and other ores 
as well as the coal abounding in it. This group 
projects as far as the basin of the Danube and forms 
there the passes known as the Iron Gate, which 
greatly impede navigation. To the Transylvanian 



6 THE SrORY OF HUNGARY. 

Hungarian range, extending north from the Marcs 
river, belong the mineral mountains of Transylvania, 
rich- in gold and other ore, and the mountain called 
Kiralyhago, which marks the frontier between Hun- 
gary and the independent Transylvania of old. 

Thirty-eight passes lead from this mountain-system 
of gigantic dimensions, partly into the countries ad- 
jacent to Hungary, partly into the regions divided 
by them. Of these the most important are : the 
Jablunka pass, communicating with Silesia and the 
valley of the Vistula ; the Vereczke pass between 
Munkacs and Stry, supposed to be the pass through 
which the Hungarians entered their present country ; 
the Radna pass, leading into Bukovina ; the Ojt6z 
pass, communicating with Moldavia ; the Tomos- 
pass, leading to Bucharest ; and the Red Tower pass, 
leading into Little Wallachia. 

Besides the Carpathian mountains Hungary also 
contains a less considerable portion of the Alps, be- 
longing to the so-called Noric Alps. They lie in 
t'rans-Danubian Hungary, the Pannonia of old. They 
embrace the Austro-Styrian border-range, between 
the valleys of the Danube and Drave ; the V^rtes- 
Bakony ranges, of which the Bakony forest forms a 
part ; and the group of the Buda mountains, pro- 
ducing the celebrated wines of that name. 

Croatia and Slavonia, which are parts of the Hun- 
garian realm, are also traversed by mountains be- 
longing to the Alpine system. 

We perceive from the preceding account that a 
large portion of the country is mountainous, but 
over a third part of it is level land, and so fertile 



THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 



that it may compare to the prairies in North Amer- 
ica. The great Hungarian plain, the so-called Alfold 
(Lowland), boasts of the best soil for the production 
of wheat, and, stretching down from the offshoots 
of the Central Carpathians to the frontiers of Servia 
contains upward of 35,000 square miles. 




BORDERS OF THE DANUBE. 



The extent of the water system of a country and 
its distribution is always of the first importance. In 
this respect, too, Hungary has been blessed by nature. 
Of the sea she has but little ; a small portion only of 
the Adriatic washes her shores, the so-called Hun- 
garian Sea-Coast, where Fiume, the only important 
Hungarian seaport city, is situated. The country pos- 
sesses also some interesting lakes ; one, Lake Balaton, 



8 THE STORY OF HUN-GARY. 

forty-seven miles long and nine miles wide, has the 
characteristics of the sea to such an extent that 
it is called the Hungarian Sea. In this extensive 
water is to be found the sd^voxy fogas fish, and on its 
shores is situated Balaton-Fiired, one of the favorite 
watering-places of Hungary, and near this place 
is the famous echo of Tihany. Another large lake 
is the Ferto (Neu-Siedler), eighteen miles long and 
about five miles wide, which became perfectly dry 
in 1863, so that even houses were built on its bed, 
but the waters have returned to it within the last 
few years. Several smaller lakes, besides the two 
mentioned, are scattered throughout the country. 

With rivers the country is abundantly supplied. 
Its mightiest stream is the Danube, after the Volga, 
the largest river in Europe. The whole of Hungary 
belongs to its basin. Its length in Hungary is 600 
miles, and it leaves the country at Orsova, after hav- 
ing formed several islands in its course. The larg- 
est among these is the Great Csall6 region, which 
contains two towns and over a hundred villages ; 
and the most beautiful of them is Margit (Margaret) 
Island, near Buda-Pesth — quite a miniature paradise, 
frequented by a great many strangers, who come here 
to get the benefit of its excellent baths. Of the nu- 
merous afifluents of the Danube the Theiss is the 
most important ; it has its sources in the country 
and empties into the Danube on Hungarian soil, 
near Titel. It is navigable for steamships. The 
Save and Drave are after the Theiss the largest 
tributaries of the Danube. All these rivers send 
their waters, through the medium of the Danube, 
into the Black Sea. 



THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. g 

Thus harmoniously is the soil of Hungary varied 
by mountains, valleys, plains, and high plateaus, 
and gratefully watered by rivers and lakes ; and if 
we but add that the country lies between the forty- 
fourth and fiftieth degrees of northern latitude, 
that is, in the most favorable part of the temperate 
zone, we may readily infer the superiority of the cli- 
matic conditions prevailing there. There is, of course, 
great variety of climate. The winter is raw and cold 
in the Carpathian regions ; spring sets in later, winter 
comes earlier, and the cold sometimes reaches — 22° F. 
In the hilly and level country the climate is much 
more genial, the summers hotter, and storms of more 
frequent occurrence. Wheat, grapes, and maize do 
not ripen in the regions of the higher Carpathians, 
whilst the Alfold produces the best and finest wheat, 
and even rice. The air is most genial on the shores 
of the Adriatic, and here are grown the fruits of 
Southern Europe. The climate, as a general thing, 
is dry, especially in the Alfold, where trees are rare. 

Such is the topography and climate of the country 
which, lying in the central portion of Middle Europe, 
stretches between Moravia, Silesia, Galicia, Bukovina, 
Roumania, Servia, Bosnia, the Adriatic Sea, Istria, 
Carinthia, Styria, and Austria. It covers an area of 
125,000 square miles, and has a population of nearly 
sixteen millions. 

Politically the country is divided into three parts, 
namely: Hungary proper (including the formerly 
detached Transylvania), the city and territory of 
Fiume, and Croatia and Slavonia. Dalmatia, too, 
ought to belong under the old laws to the country, 



lO THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

but, for a long time already, it has owned the su- 
premacy of Austria. 

Buda-Pesth is the capital of the entire kingdom. 
Situated on both banks of the majestic Danube, 
here spanned by three beautiful bridges, amongst 
them the famous suspension bridge, it is one of the 
finest cities of Europe. It has nearly 400,000 inhabi- 
tants, and is the centre of Hungary's political, cul- 
tural, industrial, and commercial life. Fine public 
and private buildings, some of them beautiful speci- 
mens of architectural art, adorn the city, and it 
boasts wid6 thoroughfares, among which the de- 
lightful Corso along the left bank of the Danube, 
and the Andrassy lit (Road) leading to the city 
park, where the national exhibition of 1885 was 
located, deserve especial mention. The finest and 
largest cities, besides Buda-Pesth, are : Presburg 
(Pozsony), on the left bank of the Danube, form- 
erly the seat of the Hungarian Diet ; Comorn (Ko- 
marom), on the Danube, too, celebrated for its grand 
fortifications ; Stuhlweissenburg (Sz^kesfejervar), 
once the capital of Hungary; Raab (Gyor) ; Oeden- 
burg (Soprony) ; Veszprem, one of the oldest cities ; 
Erlau (Eger), renowned for its excellent wine ; 
Szeged, the metropolis of the Alfold and one of 
the largest cities, which in 1879 ^^"^^ almost en- 
tirely destroyed by the overflowing of the Theiss, 
but has since been rebuilt, more beautifully than be- 
fore, after the latest European pattern ; Kassa, the 
finest city in Upper Hungary ; Miskolcz ; Debreczen, 
one of the most remarkable cities of the Hungarian 
Alfold and the seat of a considerable industry ; 



12 



THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 



Grosswardein (Nagy-Varad), the scene of many 
important historical events ; Arad, Temesvar, and 
Carlsburg (Gyulafejervar), all fortified cities memor- 
able in history ; Klausenburg (Kolozsvar), the capital 
of the former principality of Transylvania ; the 
flourishing Transylvanian towns of Kronstadt 
(Brass6)and Hermannstadt(Szeben), inhabited for the 




COACHMAN. 



most part by the descendants of Saxons ; Fiume, the 
seaport on the Adriatic ; Agram (Zagrab), the capital 
of Croatia, a beautiful city, which, however, was 
greatly damaged in 1880 by a terrible earthquake; 
and Eszek, the most prominent of the Slavonian 
towns. 

The population of the country is composed of va- 
rious nationalities. The conquering Hungarians did 
not oppress the ancient inhabitants of the land but 



THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 



13 



left them undisturbed in the use of their native lan- 
guage, and, even in later days, their tolerance went 
so far as to actually favor foreign, and, more particu- 
larly, German immigrants, and to this exceptional 
forbearance alone must be traced the survival of 
so many nationalities, and the lack of assimilation, 
after so many centuries. Classified as to languages 
spoken by the inhabitants, the chief nationalities 
number as follows : I, Hungarians or Magyars, 
6,500,000 — the ruling, and, so to say, the political 




HUNGARIAN TYPES. 

nationahty of the country, their language, the 
Magyar,^ being the language of the state ; 2, Ger- 
mans, 1,900,000; 3, Roumans, 2,400,000; 4, Slovaks, 

* The language of the Hungarians, or Magyars, belongs to the Uralo- 
Altaic stock, and must be classified with those mixed languages which 
have sprung up from the amalgamation of different branches of the 
said race. In the case of the Hungarian language we have before us 
a mixture of the Finnic-Ugrian and the Turco-Tartar idioms, and the 
question of its fundamental basis has been constantly a matter of dis- 
pute between philologists. 

Its phonetic system, as a strictly Asiatic language, being essentially 



14 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

1,800,000; 5, Croats and Serbs, 2,400,000; Ruthenes, 
350,000. Besides these there are other nationali- 
ties but in insignificant numbers. 

The relative numbers of the various religious de- 
nominations are, in round figures, as follows: Roman 
and Greek (united) Catholics 60^; Eastern-Greek 
(non-united), 16^; Lutherans, J%\ Calvinists, 13 %; 
Unitarians, \ % ', Jews, 4 %. 

With respect to their cultural condition, the peo- 
ple may be said to be abreast of the nations of 
Western Europe in every thing but industry, com- 
merce, and some branches of science. In recent 
years especially a great improvement has taken 
place in popular education, owing to the large and 
daily increasing number of schools, and the law 
which compels children to attend school. There 
are, for the purpose of advancing learning and cul- 
tivating the various branches of science, a variety of 
conspicuous scientific institutions, literary societies, 
reading clubs, and public and private libraries. In 
journalistic literature the country is equal to any 
country on the European continent. 

different from that of the Indo-European or Aryan languages, we give 
here the following rules of pronunciation to be used in this book : 



Vowels 



Hungarian. 


Englis 


h^ etc. . 


a .... 


. in hot. 




d . . . . 


. a in far. 




e .... 


. e in net. 




6 . . . . 
i .... 


. ai in fail. 
. i in pin. 




1 . . . . 


. ee in deer. 




. . . . 


. in no. 




. . . . 


. eu in French 


meuble. 


. . . . 


. eu in French deux. 


u . . . . 


. u in full. 




u . . . . 


. 00 in too. 




u . . . . 


. u in French j 


uste. 


u . . . . 


. u in French dur. 



CONSONANTS : 

Hungarian. English^ etc. 

cs ch in chalk. 

cz ts in charts. 

gy dy in how d' you do. 

ly gl in Italian gli. 

ny gn in Italian ogni. 

s sh in shirt. 

sz s in saint. 

ty ty in hit you (tu in 

tune), 

zs s in pleasure. 




CHILDREN FROM THE DISTRICT OF THE SAVE. 



1 6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

The constitution of the kingdom is one of the most 
Hberal in Europe. The estates were represented at 
the Diet up to 1848, but under the present constitu- 
tion the government is based upon popular represen- 
tation. The Parliament or National Assembly con- 
sists of two Houses, the House of Representatives 
and the Upper House, or House of Lords, and in 
these two bodies and the king is vested the legis- 
lative power. The national affairs are administered 
by eight ministerial departments ; the affairs in 
common with Austria are settled by a delegation 
from the two Houses of Parliament which meets an 
Austrian Parliamentary delegation once in every 
year,; and administered by three common ministerial 
departments — for foreign affairs, for the common 
army, and for the finances, respectively. 

In conclusion it may be added that the descrip- 
tion given above of the favorable concurrence of soil 
and climate is fully borne out by the abundance of 
fine cattle of every description possessed by the 
country, by a bountiful production of cereals which 
has earned for Hungary the name of the granary of 
Europe, by the growth of the greatest variety of 
fruit and forest trees, and finally by the rich products 
of the mining regions we have adverted to before. 

This chapter, however, would be incomplete were 
we not to mention the gigantic efforts made by the 
national government in every direction during the 
last two decades to raise Hungary from a mere 
agricultural state to an industrial and commercial 
state as well, by fostering her domestic industries 
and providing good highways, a fine net of railways, 



THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 



17 



steam and other navigation, in order to afford an 
easy and cheap outlet to the abundance of natural 
products with which nature has blessed her. 

These patriotic efforts, considering the short space 
of time they cover, have been attended with signal 
success, and have culminated in the National Exhi- 
bition of 1885, held at Buda-Pesth, which fitly 
illustrated to its many visitors, amounting to nearly 
a million, the extraordinary progress made by the 
country in the last years. 







-A. "•^- 



A " KOLA." 



CHAPTER IL 

HUNGARY BEFORE THE OCCUPATION BY THE 
MAGYARS. 

The historic period of Hungary begins, properly 
speaking, with the first century before our era, when 
Pannonia, comprising the regions watered by the 
Danube and Drave, was conquered by the victorious 
arms of Rome. Prehistoric traces, however, may be 
met with in abundance, which, with the aid of archaeo- 
logical inquiry, indicate that the soil of Hungary 
was already inhabited in the neolithic age and in that 
of bronze by populations who, judged by the me- 
mentoes left behind them, which were unearthed by 
the present generation, must have stood on the same 
level of civilization as the rest of Europe at those 
periods. Certain articles dating from the age of 
bronze show even such marked national peculiarities 
as to lead to the supposition that the heterogeneous 
tribes were all under the influence of one kind of 
culture. The Pannonians, after a protracted strug- 
gle, were subjugated by Tiberius, the stepson of 
the emperor Augustus. One of the art gems of 
antiquity, the so-called Apotheosis of Augustus, to 
be seen in the museum of antiquities at Vienna, 
commemorates the triumph of Tiberius. The con- 

i8 



20 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

quering general is represented as stepping from his 
chariot to do homage to Augustus and Livia, who 
are seated on a throne in godhke forms. Below, 
Roman soldiers are raising trophies, whilst the con- 
quered leader is sitting on the ground with his arms 
tied behind his back. The reduction of the Dacians, 
to whose realm Transylvania belonged, took place 
under Trajan, a century later. To this day stands 
in Rome the pillar of Trajan, erected in memory of 
his successful campaign in Dacia. 

In Trajan's time already Pannonia differed in no 
wise from the other Roman provinces. Under a 
Roman administration the language of Rome soon 
gained ground, although the legions placed there 
were by no means Roman or even Italian, but con- 
sisted for the most part of Romanized Spaniards, 
Belgians, Britons, and inhabitants of the Alpine 
provinces. The towns became municipalities and 
colonies, and their inhabitants enjoyed the priv- 
ilege of self-government conceded to every Roman 
citizen. Dacia, too, became, under that name, a 
Roman province, and the Romanizing process was 
no less rapid there than it had been in Pannonia. 
The blessings of Roman civilization followed, as 
usual, in the train of Roman conquests. Cities soon 
sprang up in the newly organized provinces, and 
were connected with each other as well as with 
Rome by fine highways, traces of which may be met 
with here and there to this day. The cultivation of 
the vine was introduced under Roman rule, and the 
regular working of the gold and salt mines of Tran- 
sylvania began at that period. The life in the prov- 



BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 



21 



inces was modelled after the Roman pattern, for 
the Roman brought with him his customs, insti- 
tutions, language, and mode of life. The newly 
built cities boasted of public places, of amphi- 
theatres, of public baths, the resort of pleasure- 
seekers and idlers ; nor was the forum with its 




^s^SS^^^"^- 



A ROMAN TEMPLE. 



statues wanting. The border towns had their cas- 
truvi, giving them a peculiar character of their own. 
For four centuries these provinces shared the 
destinies of the Roman empire. The enemies of 
Rome were their enemies, too, and when, under the 
emperor Marcus Aurelius, in the latter part of the 
second century of our era, the German nations com- 
bined in an attack on the Romans, the Marcomanni, 
who were ren'owned for their savage bravery, made a 



22 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

successful inroad into Pannonia, and crossing the 
Danube devastated the whole land. Commodus, 
the son of Marcus Aurelius, was satisfied to maintain 
only the integrity of the vast possessions he in- 
herited, and was averse to new conquests in the 
direction of the Carpathians. His policy was to 
protect and defend the natural boundary * line 
formed by the Danube, a policy which gave the 
legions located there an undue prominence. From 
this time forth Rome had to be defended in Pan- 
nonia, for already at that period the mighty revolu- 
tion, called the migration of nations — the pressing 
forward of populations from the North and East 
toward the civilized West and South — began to be 
felt. It was quite natural that the Pannonian legions 
should, under the circumstances, become aware of 
the importance of their position, and undertake to 
direct the destinies of Rome from that distant prov- 
ince. Roman history records that it was by the proc- 
lamation of these legions that Septimius Severus, 
Maximin, and Aurelian became emperors. Tlie em- 
perors Claudius 11. , Probus, and Valentinian I. were 
of Pannonian origin. The infant son of the latter, 
Valentinian II., was brought by the widowed em- 
press Justina into the camp, and there the legions 
swore allegiance to him. 

The time was now approaching when the waning 
power of the Roman empire became more and more 
unequal to the task- of defending her provinces. 
Aurelian already had withdrawn the Roman le- 
gions from Dacia and allowed the Goths to settle 
there, and Probus had introduced the Goths into 



BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 23 

Lower Pannonia. Roman influence and Roman 
protection began to be of little value ; the great 
empire, weakened by internal dissensions, by the 
internecine wars waged against each other by im- 
perial pretenders, torn by religious disputes, and 
finally divided, hastened to its downfall. 

At this period a new people made its appearance 
in Europe on the shores of the Black Sea and along 
the banks of the Danube, namely, the Huns, who 
were pushing before them the Goths towards the 
West. They differed in race from the Germans, 
Slavs, and Romans, and they had in Attila a leader 
capable of uniting under his sway the most dis- 
cordant ethnical elements. Ostrogoths, Gepid^e, 
Vandals, Alans, Rugians, mostly Germanic popula- 
tions, followed the banners of the foreign leader, 
trusting in his good fortune and awed and magnetized 
by his great personal qualities. He pushed forward 
with an immense number of followers, gathering 
strength as he advanced by the accession of the 
barbarous nations, bearing down and destroying 
every thing before him. Theodosius H., Emperor of 
the East, agreed to pay tribute to the king of the 
Huns ; but in order to disguise to his subjects 
the disgraceful transaction, he appointed Attila a 
general of the empire, so that the tribute should 
have the appearance of official pay. But Attila 
was not satisfied with this, and broke the peace 
overran the Balkan peninsula, pillaged the Byzantine 
provinces, and destroyed the cities until he obtained 
his own terms. Priscus Rhetor, who was one of the 
embassy sent by Theodosius H. to the court of 



24 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

Attila, describes the wooden structure in which the 
king of the Huns dwelt on the banks of the Theiss, 
somewhere in the vicinity of Szeged, and the feast- 
ing there. Kings sat at the table, lords sang Attila's 
heroic deeds, and the guests drank each other's health 
from vessels of gold. Heathen and Christian, Roman 
citizens and Asiatic barbarians, as well as the repre- 
sentatives of the Germanic tribes, mixed with each 
other and thronged his court. It was during one of 
those feasts, in 453, as he was celebrating his nup- 
tials, that the mighty king of the Huns was carried 
off by a fit of apoplexy. Whilst the sons of Attila 
were contending with each other for the posses- 
sion of the empire, the Germanic populations fell 
upon the divided Huns and drove them back to the 
Black Sea. 

The Gepidae remained now the masters of the 
country east of the Danube, whilst the Ostrogoths 
occupied the ancient Roman province. The latter, 
however, under the lead of their king Theodoric, 
migrated in a body to Italy, crossing the Alps, and 
founded there, on the ruins of the Roman empire, a 
Gothic kingdom. The Gepidae remained in conse- 
quence the sole ruling people in Hungary ; but as 
they proved dangerous neighbors to the Eastern 
empire, Justinian invited the Longobards to settle in 
Pannonia, and gave to the Avars, who now made their 
first appearance in Europe and had asked him for 
land to settle on, the left bank of the lower Danube. 
About this time, too, Slavic populations came into 
the country, crossing the Carpathian mountains and 
peopling the deserted land. Gepidae, Longobards, 



BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 2$ 

and Avars could not dwell long in peace together, 
and the first collision took place between the Longo- 
bards and the Gepidae on the banks of the Danube. 
This was followed by another hostile outbreak, in 
which the Longobards obtained the alliance of the 
Avars against the Gepidae, resulting in the total over- 
throw of the latter. Shortly afterwards the Longo- 
bards, following an invitation from Italy, emigrated 
thither. Thus the Avars were left in sole posses- 
sion of the country, ruling over populations chiefly 
Slavic. The empire they founded lasted two 
centuries and a half. The Avars were partly rem- 
nants of those Huns who had been the terror of 
Europe, and their numbers were in part swelled by 
new recruits coming from Asia. 

Bajan was the first and most dreaded prince of the 
Avars. During his reign of thirty-two years the 
Byzantine emperor was compelled to conciliate the 
warlike humor of the Avar prince by an annual 
tribute of splendid presents, which, however, did 
not prevent the latter from undertaking pillaging ex- 
peditions, on more than one occasion, into Thrace, 
Moesia, and Macedonia. Although a warlike people 
the Avars seemed to lack the necessary skill and ex- 
perience for besieging and capturing fortified places. 
Their rule was characterized by cruelty, want of 
faith, and destructive propensities. In course of 
time they became more inclined to peace ; wealth, 
indulgence in wine, and commerce having rendered 
them effeminate and less formidable. They were 
finally conquered, towards the end of the eighth 
century, by Charlemagne and his Franks, who car- 



26 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

ried on against them for seven years one of the most 
cruel and desolating wars known to history. Charle- 
magne's own historiographer tells us that one might 
have travelled through the entire land for months, 
after the termination of the war, without meeting 
with a single house — so utter and terrible were the 
ruin and destruction. The downfall of the Avars 
was irretrievable. 

The rule of the Romans had lasted four hundred 
years in Pannonia ; the Huns, Ostrogoths, Gepidae, 
and Longobards enjoyed a span of power of a little 
over a century taking them altogether, whilst the 
Avars maintained their supremacy for two hundred 
and fifty years. 

A century after their downfall appeared on the 
scene the Magyars, who founded an empire which 
still endures, having survived the storms of a thous- 
and years. 




CHAPTER III. 

THE ORIGIN OF THE HUNGARIANS. 

The story of the origin of the Hungarians is gen- 
erally derived from two different sources. One, pure- 
ly mythical or legendary, is said to have come down 
from the forefathers to the present generation, and, 
clad in a somewhat fanciful garb, runs as follows : • 

Nimrod, the man of gigantic stature, a descendant 
of Japheth, one of the sons of Noah, migrated after 
the confusion of languages at the building of the 
tower of Babel to the land of Havila. There his wife, 
Eneh, bore him two sons, Hunyor and Magyar. One 
day as the two brothers were out hunting in the for- 
ests of the Caucasus, they happened to fall in with 
a doe. They at once gave chase, but on reaching 
the moorlands of the Sea of Azov the noble animal 
suddenly vanished before their very eyes. The 
brothers, in pursuing the track of their game, 
had wandered through a wide expanse of country, 
and perceiving that the rich meadows were admira- 
bly suited to the needs of a pastoral people, they 
immediately returned to their father and asked his 
consent to their departure. They obtained his con- 
sent without difBculty, and settled with their herds 
of cattle in those regions where grass grew luxuri- 
antly. 

27 



28 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

The two brothers had Hved quietly for five years 
in their new homes, when the thought occurred to 
them, more thoroughly to investigate the surround- 
ing country. They accordingly set out on their 
journey, roaming along the steppes, when their ears 
were suddenly caught by the sounds of voices sing- 
ine, which the east wind had wafted in their direction. 
Led on by the pleasing sounds the wanderers' eyes 
were met by a lovely sight. Before them the daugh- 
ters of the dwellers in the woods were disporting 
themselves beneath their tents, celebrating the Feast 
of the Hunting-horn, in the absence of their hus- 
bands and brothers. Hunyor and Magyar were de- 
lighted at this unexpected encounter and quickly 
carried away the women to their own abode. 
Amonest the ravished women were two maids of 
rare beauty, the daughters of Dula, the prince of the 
Alans. Hunyor took one, and Magyar the other, 
for his spouse. From them sprang the kindred na- 
tions of the Huns and Magyars, or Hungarians, both 
of which in due course of time, grew to be mighty. 

After the lapse of many years the descendants of 
the two brothers had increased to such an extent 
that the territory they dwelt in proved too small to 
support them all. North of their homes lay blessed 
Scythia, bounded on the east by the Ural mountains, 
on the southeast by the sandsteppes, rich in salt, 
and the Caspian Sea, and on the south by the Don 
river. After having thoroughly reconnoitred this #• 
country they drove out the inhabitants, one portion 
of the people spreading over their newly acquired 
home and taking possession of it, whilst the remain- 



THE ORIGIN OF THE HUNGARIANS. 29 

ing portion continued to occupy their former country. 
The progeny of Hunyor settled in the northeastern 
part of the country beyond the Volga, whilst the 
descendants of Magyar, pushing upwards along the 
Don, pitched their tents on the left bank of the 
river. The latter were afterwards known by the 
name of the Don-Magyars, and their country by 
that of Dontumogeria — that is, the Don Magyar- 
land. 

In proportion as the two kindred races increased 
and came in contact with various other nations, 
they began to differ from each other more and 
more widely in their ways and manners. The 
Huns being more exposed to the attacks of the 
roving populations than the Magyars, who were 
protected by the Caspian Sea and endless steppes, 
became, in consequence, more warlike, and adopted 
ruder manners. Twenty-two generations had passed 
away since the death of the two brothers, who had 
been the founders of their nations, when for reasons 
unknown the Huns resolved to emigrate from 
their country. Whilst the Magyars continued to 
dwell quietly along the Don, the Huns proceeded 
with an immense army, each tribe contributing ten 
thousand men, against Western Europe, conquering 
and rendering tributary, in the course of their wan- 
derings, numerous nations, and finally settled in the 
region of the Theiss and Danube. Later on, how- 
ever, in the middle of the fifth century, when the 
world-renowned Attila, ''the scourge of God," came 
into power, the Huns carried their victorious arms 
over a great part of the western world. 



so THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 

The immense empire, however, which had been 
founded by King Attila, was destined to be but of 
short duration after the death of its founder. His 
sons Aladar and Csaba, in their contention for the 
inheritance, resorted to arms. The war ended with 
the utter destruction of the nation. All of the 
followers of Aladar perished ; Csaba, however, suc- 
ceeded in escaping from the destroying arms of the 
neighboring nations who had fallen on the quarrel- 
ling brothers, with but about fifteen thousand men 
to the territories of the Greek empire. A few thou- 
sands, who had deserted Csaba, fled to Transylvania, 
and settled there in the eastern mountain-regions. 
The descendants of the latter became subsequently 
merged with the immigrating Hungarians, and formed 
with them a homogeneous family under the name of 
Szeklers, which continues to exist to this day. Csaba, 
whose mother was an imperial daughter of Greece, 
met with a friendly reception at the hands of the 
Greek emperor, Marcianus, and remained in that 
country for a few years. He returned afterwards 
with the remainder of his people to the home of his 
ancestors, on the banks of the Don, where, up to 
the time of his death, he never tired of inciting the 
Magyars to emigrate to Pannonia and to revenge 
themselves on their enemies by reconquering the 
empire of Attila. 

In turning to the second source of the history of 
the origin of the Hungarians, we are treading upon 
the firmer ground of scientific inquiry ; we can 
penetrate the hazy light of remote antiquity, and 
venture the assertion that it is far away in the dis- 




HUNGARIAN SHEPHERD 



32 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

tant East — namely, in the Altai mountains, that we 
may look for the cradle of the Magyar race. Here 
was, as the reader may be aware, the coterminous 
frontier of the three principal branches of the Uralo- 
Altaic race — namely, the Mongolians in the east, 
the Finn-Ugrians in the north, and the Turks in 
the south. With a population of strictly nomadic 
habits and of eminently roaming propensities, it 
needs scarcely to be said that the three branches 
lived in continual feud and warfare near each other. 
A great convulsion in the life of these nomads 
happened, as we presume, in the second or third 
century after Christ. The Turks, on seeing the 
more flourishing state of things with their Finn- 
Ugrian neighbors in the north, fell upon them sud- 
denly, drove them from their homes in the valleys 
of the Altai mountains, where traces of their indus- 
try are still extant, and scattered the various tribes 
and families, partly to the north — namely, to Siberia ; 
partly to the west — namely, to Southern Russia. 

From that extraordinary throng and revolutionary 
migration emerged the Voguls and Ostyaks, who 
live at this day on both sides of the great Obi river; 
the Zyrians, who now live in the governments of 
Archangel and Vologda ; farther the Votyaks and 
Tcheremisses, a motley crowd of men who are of 
Finn-Ugrian extraction, but strongly intermixed 
with Turco-Tartar blood. 

Now, of similar origin are the Hungarians, with 
this difference, that with them the Turco-Tartar 
origin forms the basis of their ethnical character, 
and that the Finn-Ugrians who amalgamated with 



THE ORIGIN OF THE HUNGARIANS. 33 

them afterward, being a subjugated population, re- 
mained always in a moral inferiority, although they 
greatly influenced the governing class. We do not 
know precisely whether the amalgamation took place 
in the valleys of the Altai, or farther west on the 
Volga, at some later period, nor can we form an ac- 
curate idea as to the part the Hungarians took in the 
irruption of the Huns, with which event they are 
associated in national tradition. The Huns were 
unquestionably Turks by extraction. Their mode of 
warfare, their religion, and social life present full evi- 
dence of this, and admitting that they had in their 
ranks either pure Finn-Ugrian elements or portions 
of the above-mentioned amalgamated populations, 
we may fairly claim that the ancestors of the Hun- 
garians took part in the great devastating campaigns 
which Attila carried on against Rome and the Chris- 
tian West as far as France. In this sense, the claim 
of the Hungarians to descent from the Huns is fully 
justified. But, as the plan of this work excludes the 
discussion of questions wrapped in the clouds of sci- 
entific speculations we will turn to that portion of the 
history of the Hungarians which is cleared up by his- 
torical evidence, and will begin with the ninth century, 
when they emerged from the banks of the Volga and 
began their march toward the West, a march which 
resulted in their occupation of Hungary. 

Before entering into the details of the march of 
the Magyars towards their present home, we must 
try to sketch as briefly as possible the geograph- 
ical and ethnographical conditions of the country 
between the Volga and the Danube in the ninth 



34 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

century. It must be borne in mind that at that 
time the Russians were in a considerable minority in 
those regions. East of the Volga, as far as the Ural 
River, and even beyond, roamed various tribes of the 
vast Turkish race, amongst whom the Petchenegs oc- 
cupied the foremost rank. On the lower course of 
the Volga and further west, lived the Khazars, a 
Turkish tribe of advanced culture, who carried on 
a flourishing trade on the Caspian and Black seas, 
and had embraced the Jewish religion. These Kha- 
zars were the mightiest of the Turkish races of that 
time, and their wars with Persia and with the rising 
Mohammedan power became of historic importance. 
Westward of the Khazars dwelt another fraction of 
the Petchenegs, the frontiers of whose country ex- 
tended across Moldavia to the borders of Transyl- 
vania, whilst the Magyars or Hungarians, who had 
occupied a country called Lebedia, were compelled 
by the Petchenegs to emigrate to Etelkuzu, not re- 
maining there, however, for any great length of 
time. In fact the whole of Southern Russia of to- 
day was teeming, during the ninth century, with 
nomadic populations. These pressed upon each 
other in the search for pasture grounds for their 
numerous cattle. There is a great likelihood that 
the fame of the rich plains of Hungary had remained 
in the memory of the Magyars from the time when 
their forefathers fought under the banners of Attila. 
Suffice it to say that, compelled by circumstances, 
they made up their minds to go westward, and the 
seven dukes who stood at that time at the head of 
the nation, and whose names were Almos, Elod, 



36 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

Kund, Huba, Tas, Und, and Tuhutum, united in a 
solemn league and covenant, and putting Almos, as 
the oldest amongst them, at their head, they sealed 
that union with the old Turkish form of oath, by 
drinking each of the blood of all, obtained by cut- 
ting open the veins of their arms. This form of oath 
was for a long time a custom in Hungary. The union 
of the Hungarians was based upon the following five 
conditions : 

1. As long as they and their progeny after them 
shall live, their duke and ruler shall be always taken 
from the house of Almos. 

2. Whatever should be acquired by the united 
strength of all must benefit all those who belonged 
to them. 

3. The chiefs of the people having voluntarily 
elected Almos for their ruler, they and their descend- 
ants shall always take part in the councils of the 
prince, and shall have their share in the honors of 
the empire. 

4. Whenever any of their descendants shall be 
found wanting in the fidelity due to the prince, or 
shall foment dissensions between him and his kin- 
dred, the blood of the guilty one shall be shed 
even as theirs was flowing when they gave their 
oaths of fidelity to Almos. 

5. Should a successor of Almos affend against this 
oath and covenant of the fathers, then might the 
curse rest on him. 

We have no accurate information concerning the 
number of Hungarian warriors and of their retinues 
who entered Hungary towards the end of the ninth 



THE ORIGIN OF THE HUNGARIANS. 3/ 

century, nor can we point out those localities on the 
eastern frontier of the country through which the 
entrance was effected. As to the numbers, we do 
not go amiss if we assume that no more than one 
hundred and fifty thousand fighting men formed the 
main body of the invaders. Their ranks were 
swelled partly by Russians who followed in their 
track, partly by Avars, a kindred Turkish population, 
whom they found in the country itself, and by 
Khazars, who, preceding the Hungarians, were lead- 
ing a nomadic life on the steppe. Regarding the 
country itself, it must be borne in mind that in those 
days it was very thinly populated, and the ethnical 
conditions were somewhat as follows : In the west 
there were Slovenes and Germans ; in the north, 
namely, in the Carpathian mountains, lived the com- 
pact mass of the Slovaks, whose sway extended 
down to the banks of the Theiss. The country 
between that river and the Danube belonged to the 
Bulgarian prince, Zalan, whilst the region on the left 
bank of the Theiss, as far as the river Szamos, was 
in the possession of Marot, the prince of the Khazars. 
The conquest of Hungary was evidently a task of no 
great difficulty for a warlike nation like the Hun- 
garians, whose strange physiognomy and superior 
weapons, brought from the Caucasus, struck terror, at 
the very outset, into the breasts of the inhabitants. 
The invaders appeared with their small, sturdy, 
and hardy horses, quick as lightning and strong as 
iron. Their mode of warfare was strictly Asiatic, 
similar to that used to this day by the Turcomans, 
and they were animated precisely by the same spirit 



(/ 



38 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

which led the Mongolians, under Jenghis Khan, 
over the whole of Asia and a large portion of Europe. 
With all this, they could not be called barbarians or 
savages, when their social and political institutions 
were compared with those of the inhabitants they 
subjugated in Hungary. It was the culture of Persia 
which extended at that time up to the banks of the 
Volga, penetrating the minds of the motley popula- 
tions living there, and traces of this culture are 
clearly to be discovered in the acts of the leading 
persons amongst the conquering Hungarians. As 
soon as the Hungarians had taken possession of their 
present country, under the leadership of Arpad, it 
became their chief care to give a certain stability to 
their internal affairs. Scattered over the extensive 
territory, they more particularly endeavored to bring 
order into their relations with the former inhabitants. 
Those only who refused to lay down their arms felt 
the weight of the conquerors ; whilst they recipro- 
cated the friendship and confidence shown to them 
by others. Thus it happened that many of the 
ancient inhabitants were adopted by them for their 
own countrymen, and that, having entered into a 
treaty of amity with Marot, a treaty made firmer by 
the betrothal of Arpad's youngest son, Zoltan, with 
Marot's daughter, the territory of Bihar was added 
to Hungary after the death of Marot. According to 
the fashion of the Scythian populations, they dis- 
turbed no one in his faith, nor did they interfere with 
any one's mode of worship. Nomads as they were, 
they knew how to appreciate what was still left of 
the ancient culture in their new country, and they 



THE ORIGIN OF THE HUNGARIANS. 39 

fostered the colonial places still surviving from the 
Roman period, the cradles of the future city life of 
Hungary. 

There is an account in the history of the Hun- 
garians how the different portions of the invading 
army spread over the country, what battles they 
fought, what alliances they entered into with the 
reigning princes, but the account is based merely 
upon legendary tradition. We are sadly in want of 
details about that most interesting epoch, and sup- 
ported by historical authority we can only state that 
Leo the Wise, the emperor of Byzantium, asked the 
military assistance of the Hungarians against the 
Bulgarians, and that it was the sword of the valiant 
nomadic warriors Avhich averted a threatening cal- 
amity from Constantinople. It is likewise certain 
that Arnulph, King of Germany, encouraged by the 
military reputation of the Magyars, asked their as- 
sistance against Svatopluk, King of Moravia, and 
that their first appearance in the country is con- 
nected with this occurrence. 

The conquest of Hungary occupied the period be- 
tween 884 and 895. 

Within this time falls the utter defeat and tragic 
end of Svatopluk, the most powerful native prince 
with whom the Hungarians had to contend. Ar- 
nulph had already engaged him in battle when the 
Hungarians came to the succor of the former. Their 
timely arrival decided the fate of the battle, which 
resulted in the complete rout and scattering of the 
Moravians. Svatopluk, is said to have done won- 
ders of heroism during the battle, but after its fatal 



40 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

termination he could nowhere be found. In vain 
was the bloody field searched for the body of the 
unfortunate leader, nor were the messengers sent 
out to remoter regions to obtain news of him more 
successful in their quest. Hungarian tradition 
has it that in his rage and despair at the loss 
of the battle, he rushed into the Danube, and 
met there with a watery grave. Slavic tradition, 
however, represents the matter in a manner more 
ill- keeping Avith the character and reckless disposi- 
tion of this strange barbarian, who knew but un- 
bridled passions and sudden resolutions formed on the 
spur of the moment. According to these traditions, 
Svatopluk, seeing that his fortunes were hopelessly 
wrecked, mounted a steed and, leaving the battle-field, 
swiftly rode away into the fastnesses of the intermin- 
able forests covering the Zobor mountain, which over- 
looks in massive grandeur towards the east and south 
the town and castle of Nyitra, and was then lost to 
sight. Here in a secluded valley, amidst rocks, and pro- 
tected by pathless woods, lived three hermits. These 
holy men passed their lives in offering up prayers to 
God in a chapel constructed by their own hands, and, 
entirely absorbed by their pious exercises, they knew 
no other nourishment but herbs and the fruit grow- 
ing wild. These men, who did not visit the neigh- 
boring cities, had never seen Svatopluk, and this was 
the very reason that brought the king of the Mora- 
vians to their hermitage. As he reached late in the 
night a place where the forest was densest, he dis- 
mounted, killed his horse, and, together with his royal 
mantle and crown, buried it in a ditch, and covered 



THE ORIGIN OF THE HUNGARIANS. 



41 



up the place of burial with earth and leaves. He 
then tore his garments and soiled them with mud, 
and in this guise, pretending to be a beggar, he came 
to the three hermits and told them that, moved by 
the Holy Spirit, he desired to pass his life with them. 
He was cordially received by the hermits and lived 
amongst them a great many years unknown, praying 
as they did, partaking of the same food they ate, and 
like them dead to all the memories of the outside 
world. In his last moments only he told them his 
real name, and the hermits, in their childlike aston- 
ishment at this incredulous adventure, placed the 
following inscription on his tombstone : " Here rests 
Svatopluk, the king of Moravia, buried in the centre 
of his kingdom." 




CHAPTER IV. 



THE REIGN OF THE DUKES. 



Arpad, called by the Greek writers Arpadis, was 
the first ruler of Hungary, who laid the foundations 
of the present kingdom, and whose statesmanlike 
sagacity may well excite admiration, considering that 
under his lead a strictly Asiatic nation succeeded in 
penetrating into the very interior of Christian 
Europe and moulding a state out of the heteroge- 
neous elements of old Pannonia. For this reason we 
find it improper to call him a rude barbarian, as con- 
temporary Christian writers are in the habit of do- 
ing. He evidently was penetrated with the Persian 
culture and his Oriental statesmanship not only 
equalled but even surpassed the political ideas of 
the rulinsf men at that time at the head of affairs 
in Pannonia and Eastern Germany. Arriving, as 
he did, with a restless and adventurous nomadic 
people, he could not mitigate at once the martial 
rudeness of the latter. Like other Turkish and 
Mongolian masses the Hungarians, very soon after 
the occupation of the country, rushed out into the 
neighboring lands to gratify their lust of adventure 
and booty. They penetrated into Germany, spread- 
ing terror and devastation everywhere. On a larger 

42 




< 
a 

si 



44 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

scale was their Inroad into Italy in 899, where King 
Berengar was defeated on the banks of the Brenta. 
Twenty thousand Italians were slain, the wealthy 
cities of Milan, Pavia, and Brescia were plundered, 
and the invaders crossed even the Po. It was only 
by the payment of a large ransom that the Italians 
could free themselves from the scourge of these 
Asiatic conquerors. Encouraged by this success the 
Hungarians, In the following year, entered Germany, 
trying their arms with varying fortune, until a corri- 
mon decision of the chieftains arrested these incur- 
sions. In 907 the nation was saddened by a mourn- 
ful event. The ruler who had founded the new em- 
pire, who for nearly twenty years had directed the 
destinies of the nation with so much wisdom and 
energy, and In whom the glory of great statesman- 
ship and generalship was united, had ceased to be 
amongst the living. His body was, according to 
ancient custom, burned and his ashes buried near a 
brook flowing at that time in a pebbly bed towards 
Etzelburg, the Old-Buda of to-day. His grateful 
descendants, after the introduction of Christianity, 
erected on that spot a church, called the White 
Church of the Virgin, In commemoration of the Im- 
mortal prince. He was succeeded by his son Zol- 
tan, who had to seize the reins at a comparatively 
tender age, and who was therefore assisted by three 
governors. This circumstance encouraged the neigh- 
boring princes to fall upon Hungary In order to 
drive the new conquerors out of the country. Luit- 
pold, Duke of Bavaria, and DItmar, Archbishop of 
Salzburg, together with others, led the united army 



THE REIGN OF THE DUKES. 45 

in three different columns, flattering themselves with 
the hope that, imitating the tactics of Charlemagne 
against the Avars, they would be as successful as 
that famous ruler of the Franks. 

The Hungarians, menaced by such an imminent 
danger, concentrated all their forces to resist the 
onslaught. Always quick to resolve and as quick in 
their movements, they anticipated the attack, and 
the two hostile armies met in 907 in the environs 
of Presburg. The struggle on both sides was a 
bitter one. The zeal of the Germans, on the one 
hand, was excited by the prospect of ridding them- 
selves and the whole Occident of the disagreeable 
neighborhood of these dangerous intruders, whilst 
with the Hungarians, on the other hand, it was a 
question of self-preservation, for in case of a defeat 
they had every thing at stake. The latter, therefore, 
fought with the utmost vehemence, not in regular 
battle array, after the German fashion, but with their 
storming divisions, furious attacks, feigned retreats, 
and renewed onslaughts, their arrows and javelins 
descending every time like a hail-storm, they broke 
through the serried ranks of the Germans and rode 
down every thing that was in their way. The sun 
rose and set three times over the heads of the fight- 
ing armies before the great battle was decided. The 
Germans were hopelessly defeated. Duke Luitpold 
lost his life fighting, and with him the Archbishop of 
Salzburg, as well as most of the bishops, abbots, and 
counts, laid down their lives during those three fatal 
days. 

It was but natural that, encouraged by this success- 



46 THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 

ful battle, the Hungarians should eagerly continue 
their marauding expeditions in every direction into 
Germany and even France. Dividing* into small 
bands, just as the Turcomans used to do up to quite 
recent times in Persia, the Hungarians infested the 
whole of Saxony and Thuringia, and penetrated as far 
as Bremen. They crossed the Rhine, flooded a part 
of France, and quick as were their inroads, no less 
promptly did they return, always laden with rich 
booty and driving before them a long file of slaves 
of both sexes. The entire Occident was continually 
harassed by them, and this gave rise to those dire 
misrepresentations of the Hungarians and to the ex- 
ecrations against them which could be heard all over 
the western world during the tenth century, and 
which were faithfully copied into the chronicles of 
that time. In these chronicles they were charged 
with devouring the hearts of their enemies in order 
to render themselves irresistible in battle. Signs in 
the heavens were said to herald their approach. 
Vireins devoted to the service of God foretold the 
irruptions of the Hungarians and their own martyr- 
dom. Mere human power seemed hopeless against 
them ; the litanies of that time, therefore, abound in 
special prayers asking for the protection of the Lord. 
Impartial history easily recognizes in all this partly 
exaggerations, partly outbreaks of dismay, and the 
effects of fright, but these utterances, overdrawn as 
they are, contribute much to our knowledge of the 
violence of the struggle between the western Chris- 
tians and the Asiatic Hungarians. Quite differ- 
ently and by no means so dreadfully are the Hun- 



THE REIGN OF THE DUKES. 4/ 

garians described by the Byzantine historians. Their 
reputation for ferocity, and the knowledge of the 
terror they inspired, enhanced their valor and 
audacity. Neglecting all precautionary measures, 
and undervaluing their enemies, they began to meet 
here and there with small disasters, and, as the 
Germans on the other hand, becoming familiar with 
their mode of Warfare, and more accustomed to the 
strange appearance of Asiatic warriors, grew bolder 
and bolder, we may easily account for the turn which 
gradually took place in the war fortunes of the Mag- 
yars. It was Henry the Fowler, King of Germany, 
who, after making preparations for nine years, inflicted 
the first heav/ loss upon the Hungarian adventurers 
near Merseburg in 933. The Germans rushed into 
the battle with the cry of " Kyrie eleyson," whilst 
the Hungarians were wildly shouting '^ Hooy, Hooy." 
The Saxon horsemen caught up the Hungarian 
arrows with their shields, and in solid ranks threw 
themselves in fierce onset upon the Hungarians. 
The latter perceived with surprise and dismay that 
they were opposed by a well-organized enemy. 
During the hand-in-hand fight which now ensued 
the Germans achieved victory by their determined 
bravery. A great many Hungarians fell in the fight, 
and many more were killed during their retreat. 
The number of killed is assumed to have been 
thirty-six thousand. The Hungarian camp with all 
the baggage fell into the hands of the victors. 
Henry commanded that a universal thanksgiving 
feast should be observed throughout the whole of 
Germany, and ordered that the tribute hitherto paid 



48 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

to the Hungarians should be divided between the 
churches and the poor. 

The Hungarians now refrained from entering 
Germany in a northern direction, but the more 
frequent and more vehement grew their irruptions 
into Bavaria and also into the northern portion of 
the Byzantine empire. It was the old lust of con- 
quest and adventure, and greediness for booty which 
spurred their activity. Duke Taksony, who suc- 
ceeded his father Zoltan in 946, and reigned until 
972, was animated by the same lawless spirit, and 
the Hungarians would have continued to be the 
scourge of the neighboring countries if the defen- 
sive measures taken by the Germans about this 
time had not acted as a dam against their devas- 
tating flood. In the year 955, on the river Lech, 
near Augsburg, King Otto the Great inflicted a ter- 
rible defeat upon the Hungarians — a defeat by which 
nearly the whole of the Hungarian army, numbering 
forty thousand men was annihilated. Their generals, 
Bulcsee and Lehel were captured ; the chains of gold 
they wore around their necks, as well as other trink- 
ets of gold and silver, were taken from them, and at 
last they were carried to Ratisbon, and were made to 
suffer a disgraceful death by being hanged. A part 
of their fellow captives were buried alive, whilst the 
others were tortured to death in the most cruel man- 
ner. The remainder of the army was destroyed in its 
retreat by the people who had everywhere risen, and, 
according to tradition, but seven were left to reach 
their homes. The Magyars, a proud nation even in 
their misfortune, were so incensed against these 



THE REIGN OF THE DUKES. 49 

fugitives for having preferred a cowardly flight to a 
heroic death, that they were scornfully nicknamed 
the Melancholy Magyars, and condemned to servi- 
tude. Even their descendants w^andered about 
through the land as despised beggars. 

A tradition has survived amongst the people to 
this day, about the death of Lehel and his reputed 
ivory bugle-horn, upon which there are carved repre- 
sentations of battles. It is true that archaeological 
inquiry has proved its sculpture to be of Roman 
workmanship and that it was a drinking-cup rather 
than a bugle. The legend, however, as still current 
amongst the Hungarians, deserves to be told for the 
sake of its romantic character. 

Amidst the confusion and wild disorder incident 
upon the disastrous battle of Augsburg, Duke Lehel 
found no time to give thought to his battle-horn. His 
horse had been killed under him, and whilst he lay 
buried beneath it the trusty sword was wrenched 
from the hand of the hero before he could pierce his 
own heart with it. Taken prisoner he was led cap- 
tive into the presence of the victorious Otto. 

Princely judges sat in judgment on the princely, 
captive and condemned him to death. This sentence 
caused Lehel no pain ; he felt he had deserved it, not, 
indeed, for having given battle but for losing it. Yet 
it hurt him to the soul to see the rebel Conrad seated 
amongst his judges, the traitor who had invited the 
Hungarians to enter Germany, and who, by his defec- 
tion, had caused their defeat. The success of his das- 
tardly desertion had, however, conciliated the victors 
and restored him to their confidence. 



50 TIJE STOR Y OF HUNGAR Y. 

Lehel begged but for one favor, and that was to be 
allowed to wind the horn, his faithful and inseparable 
friend, once more, and to sound on it his funeral 
dirge. The horn was handed to him. He sounded 
it for the last time ; and, as he drew from it the sad 
strains which sounded far and wide and were mourn- 
fully re-echoed by the distant hills, the dying warrior 
on the field of Lech lifted up his head, eagerly listen- 
ing to the familiar bugle, and the soul which had 
come back to him, for one instant, took wings again as 
soon as the sad strains died away. The dying music, 
plaintively quivering, told the tale of an inglorious 
death terminating an heroic life. The very henchmen 
were listening with rapture. 

At that moment Lehel broke away from his place, 
and, seeing Conrad before him, felled him to the 
ground, killing him with a single blow from the 
heavy horn. *' Thou shalt go before me and be 
my servant in the other world," said Lehel. There- 
upon he went to the place of execution. There is 
discernible on Lehel's horn, in our days, a large in- 
dentation which posterity attributes to the event 
just narrated. 

Not only in Germany but also in the southeast 
of Europe the marauding Hungarians experienced 
more than one disaster, and it may be properly said 
that in 970, when they attacked the Byzantine em- 
pire and were defeated near Arcadiopolis, their long 
series of irruptions into the adjoining countries was 
brought to a conclusion. They became convinced 
that while they themselves were steadily decreasing 
in numbers and wasting their strength in continu- 



THE REIGN OF THE DUKES. 5 1 

ous wars, the neighboring nations were becoming 
every day more formidable by dint of their unanim- 
ity, organization, courage, and skill in warfare, and 
that, in consequence, the Hungarian name inspired 
no more the terror which the first successes had earned 
for it. They saw that if they went on with their in- 
roads, as hitherto, they would thereby but bring 
about the dissolution of the empire from within, or 
that they might provoke on the part of foreign na- 
tions a united attack which they would be unable to 
withstand. For this reason they renounced those 
adventurous campaigns which began already seri- 
ously to menace their existence and their future 
in Europe. 

They were strengthened in the wisdom of this 
course by Duke Geyza, who succeeded his father in 
972, and reigned until 997. Baptized during the life 
of his father at Constantinople, and having married 
Sarolta, the mild-tempered daughter of Duke Gyu- 
la, of Transylvania, he became very early awake 
to the necessity of refining the rude manners of his 
people. His disposition became much more appa- 
rent when, after the death of his first wife, he mar- 
ried the sister of Miecislas, the prince of Poland, a 
lady famous for her beauty, and also conspicuous for 
her energy and masculine qualities, for she vied in 
riding, drinking, and the chase with her chivalrous 
husband, upon whom she really exercised an extra- 
ordinary influence. Extremely severe in his rule, it 
was Geyza who began to transform the manners and 
habits of the Magyars. They began to show greater 
toleration towards foreign religions, and were really 



52 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

on the eve of changing their Asiatic manners and 
habits into those of Europe. More than a hundred 
years had' passed since their migration from the an- 
cestral steppes. Historical events, difference of cli- 
mate, and, above all, the separation from their 
Asiatic brethren had carried into oblivion very 
many features of that political and social life 
which, originating in Asia, could not be well con- 
tinued in the immediate neighborhood of, and in the 
continual contact with, the western world. The great 
crisis in the national career appears to have arrived 
at its culmination during the reign of Duke Geyza, 
and to have found its ultimate solution in the con- 
version of the Magyars to Christianity, a most im- 
portant act in the national life of the people, which 
deserves consideration in a separate chapter. 




CHAPTER V. 



THE CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY. 



The Hungarians, when entering their present 
homes, were heathens, and professed what is called 
Shamanism^ the faith common to all the branches 
of the vast Uralo-Altaic race, and which has survived 
to this day amongst the poulations of Southern 
Siberia and Western MongoHa. The doctrines and 
principles of Shamanism being generally but little 
known, it is proper to sketch here its outlines, in 
order to make clear the character of the Hungarian 
religious rites and customs. 

The believers in Shamanism adored one Supreme 
Being called Isten, a. word borrowed from the Per- 
sians, who attach to it to this day the meaning of 
God. Besides the supreme being, they adored sun- 
dry spirits or protecting deities, such as the gods of 
the mountains, woods, springs, rivers, fire, thunder, 
etc. These divinities were adored either by prayers 
or through sacrifices offered to them in the recesses 
of woods, or near springs. What these prayers of the 
Hungarians were we do not know; we can form, 
however, some idea of their character on reading the 
prayers of the present Shaman worshippers, a speci- 
men of which is here subjoined : 

53 



54 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

" O, thou God living above, Abiash I 
Who hast clad the earth w^ith grass, 
Who hast given leaves to the tree, 
Who hast provided the calves w^ith flesh, 
Who didst bring forth hair on the head, 
Who didst create all the creatures. 
Who prepares every thing present ! 
Thou hast created the stars, O God ! 
O, Alton Pi, who hast exalted the father, 
O, Ulgen Pi, vv'ho hast exalted the mother, 
Thou creator of all created thing-;, 
Thou preparer of all that is prepared, 
O God, thou creator of the stars, 

give us cattle, O God ! 
Give food, O God ! 
Give us a chief, O God j 

Thou preparer of all things prepared. 
Thou creator of all things created ! 

1 prayed to my Father 

To bestow on me his blessing. 

To give me help, 

To me, in my house. 

And to my cattle, in the herd ! 

Before thee I bow down. 

Give thy blessing, O Kudai, 

Thou Creator of all things created, 

Thou preparer of all things prepared ! " 

The sacrifices consisted in the offering up of cattle 
and particularly, on solemn occasions, of white 
horses. Their priests, called Zl:r7/<?i", occupied a pre- 
eminent place, not only in the political but also in 
the social life of the Magyars. They were a kind of 
augurs and soothsayers, whose prophecies were based 
either upon certain natural phenomena, or upon the 
inspection of certain portions of slaughtered animals, 
such as the intestines, the heart, and shoulder-blade, 
which latter was put into the fire, good and bad 



THE CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY, 55 

auspices being prognosticated from the different 
positions of the cracks produced. 

Religious faith being always open to outside or 
foreign influence, it was but natural that the Hun- 
garians, in that long march from the interior of Asia 
into Europe, should have borrowed many novel feat- 
ures from the religious life of the countries through 
which they passed. Thus, in the earlier faith of the 
Magyars, we meet with many distinctive traits of the 
Parsee religion, of that of the Khazars, and of the 
religions of many Ugrian races, for, like other fam- 
ilies of the Uralo-Altaic race, the Magyars were 
conspicuous for their spirit of toleration towards 
other believers. 

The numerous Christian prisoners they had 
brought with them from various parts of Europe 
were not only left in the undisturbed practice of 
their creeds, but were even permitted to influence to 
a very considerable degree the faith of their con- 
querors and masters. Under these circumstances it 
was by no means a hazardous undertaking, on the 
part of Duke Geyza, to give permission to mission- 
aries and priests to come into the country and 
preach the gospel. A Suabian monk named Wolf- 
gang was the first who tried to spread Christianity in 
Hungary in 917. A greater success was achieved 
by Pilgrin, the bishop of Passau, who, taking the 
matter of conversion into his hands, was able to re- 
port to the Pope in 974 that nearly five thousand 
Hungarians had been baptized, and that *' under the 
benign influence of the miraculous grace of God 
those heathens even who have remained in their 



5^ THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

erring ways forbid no one the baptism, nor do they 
interfere Avith the priests, allowing them to go where 
they please. Christians and heathens dwell together 
in such harmony that here the prophecy of Isaiah 
seems to be fulfilled : ' The wolf and the lamb shall 
feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the 
ox. 

Considering the difficulty of turning inveterate 
Asiatics to western views of life, and, particularly to 
the totally different doctrines of the Christian re- 
ligion, we may easily realize that the total conversion 
of the Magyars was a work attended with many 
struggles and difficulties. After Pilgrin we find 
Bruno engaged in the pious undertaking ; but by 
far the most successful of all of the missionaries was 
St. Adalbert, the bishop of Prague, who came to the 
country in 993, and, remaining there for a consider- 
able period of time, had the good fortune to baptize 
several members of the reigning family, amongst 
whom was the son of Duke Geyza, called Vayik, to 
whom was given the Christian name of Stephen. 
This conversion being regarded as one of the most 
momentous events in the history of the Hungarians, 
it will be worth while explaining the accompanying 
illustration, representing this act. In the baptistry, 
we perceive, as the principal personage, Stephen, in 
his baptismal robes. Next to him is seen St. Adal- 
bert, robed and adorned in keeping with his episco- 
pal dignity and the apostolic office of conversion. 
To the left in the foreground, as witnesses to the 
baptism, are standing the Emperor of Germany, 
Otto III., who was brought there by his friendship 




w O 

W3 P-l 



o .^ 



^ -5 

W TO 

t— 1 o_, 
H 
Ph rt 

o 



58 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

for Geyza and his interest in the baptism of Stephen, 
and Count Teodato, of San Severino, a knight who 
had emigrated from Apuha, and to whom Geyza had 
entrusted the education of his son. Behind the lat- 
ter stands Duke Henry of Bavaria, who, attending 
the emperor, is present as a guest. Farther in the 
background we perceive Duke Geyza and his consort, 
sunk in pious revery. We see Stephen after the act 
of confessing his faith and knowledge of Christianity. 
Already he had turned his face toward the west, 
had renounced Satan and devoted himself to the 
eternal war of the children of God, and then, turning 
to the east, had vowed, with exalted enthusiasm, 
obedience and devotion to the Law of God as re- 
vealed through Christ. Now we see him, according 
to the custom of the Church at that time, in the act 
of descending into the baptismal font in order to 
receive from the hands of the holy bishop the sign 
of the Cross, the sacrament of spiritual regeneration. 
Pious emotion is reflected in the countenances of 
the attendant Magyars, although there may be dis- 
cernible here and there the expression of a hidden 
spirit of antagonism. And the supposition of such 
an expression can, in no way, be called a groundless 
one. The worship of God on the banks of rivers, in 
woods and groves, the offering of sacrifices, and sun- 
dry superstitions connected with the soothsaying of 
the Shaman priests, certainly impressed more forcibly 
the minds of the free and independent dwellers of the 
steppes than the mass pronounced in Latin, and the 
rites of the Catholic Church, introduced by the 
monks aad priests of the West. Conversion to 



THE CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY, 59 

Christianity had to be unconditionally followed up 
not only by the relinquishment of the old national 
religion, but also by the renunciation of the ancient 
habits and manners, to which the Hungarians clung 
in spite of the generations that had passed since 
their coming to the banks of the Danube and 
Theiss. The reluctance, shown here and there, 
must be also ascribed to the overbearing attitude 
assumed by the foreign missionaries towards the 
ruling race of the Magyars, upon whom these Bava- 
rians, Suabians, Czechs, Italians, etc., looked down 
as contemptible barbarians, a title they by no means 
deserved, for it was only the difference in culture 
and not the want of culture which separated the two 
elements. Suffice it to say that traces of this dis- 
content became visible very early, and that the 
slumbering spark broke out in open rebellion in 997, 
in the very year when Stephen ascended the throne, 
made vacant through the death of his father, Geyza. 
History records three different risings, which took 
place with the intention of doing away with the 
newly introduced Christian religion, together with 
all the changed modes of life borrowed from western 
civilization. In the first instance the movement was 
headed by Kopan, a nobleman in the county of 
Siimeg. His object was to drive out the foreign 
Christian missionaries and priests, to dethrone Ste- 
phen, and to re-establish the old pagan faith. A 
vast multitude of discontented Hungarians gathered 
under his banners, but Stephen was not at all afraid. 
Collecting his army and the foreign Christian knights 
about him, he left his regal seat Gran (Esztergom), 



6o THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

and marched on straight against the rebels. The 
engagement took place in the vicinity of Veszprem. 
It was a hard contested struggle, and only after a 
bitter fight and the death of Kopan himself, did his 
adherents lay down their arms. The happy issue of 
the battle decided the victory of Christianity in 
Hungary, and all that was still needed, was to 
strengthen the new faith. The effects of this victory 
were, nevertheless, of short duration, for in the year 
I002, another anti-Christian movement broke out in 
Transylvania, whose ruler, Duke Gyula, uniting with 
the partly pagan, partly Mohammedan Petchenegs, 
made an inroad into Hungary, carrying devastation 
and bloodshed everywhere. Stephen now had to 
march against this dangerous enemy, and not only 
vanquished the Hungarian duke Gyula, but con- 
tinued his march into the country of the Petche- 
negs, defeated their prince, Kaan, and looting his 
camp got possession of all the rich treasures these 
Petchenegs had carried away from the Greek empire. 
The third and decidedly the most dangerous ris- 
ing took place in 1046, when a certain Vatha, a zeal- 
ous adherent of the former pagan religion, and an 
offspring of Duke Gyula, availing himself of the dis- 
turbances arising from the contest for the succession 
to the throne, incited the people against the Christian 
religion and its institutions. They urged Andrew, 
the pretender to the throne of the country, *' to abol- 
ish the Christian religion and its institutions ; to re- 
establish the ancient religion and the laws brought 
from Asia, and demanded that they should be 
permitted to pull down the churches, and to drive 



THE CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY. 6 1 

out the priests and the foreign immigrants." Un- 
aware of the number and strength of the rebels the 
prince did not venture to refuse their request. This 
the rebels took for a tacit compliance, and, embold- 
ened by it, they fell, with wild rage, upon the Chris- 
tians. The Germans and Italians that were found 
in "the country, especially the bishops and priests, 
were persecuted with most inhuman cruelty. The 
churches and other places devoted to Christian 
piety were destroyed, the ancient pagan religion 
was restored, and everywhere the people resumed 
the former mode of life according to their ancient 
customs and heathen faith, offering up sacrifices, as 
before, in woods and groves and near springs. Dur- 
ing these disorders St. Gerhard, the former tutor of 
St. Emeric, and at that time bishop of Csanad, lost 
his life. He was on his way to Pesth, to meet 
Andrew, when he fell into the hands of the enraeed 

o 

populace, was killed by them on the mountain oppo- 
site Pesth, called Gellerthegy (Mount Gerhard) to 
this day, and his body was thrown into the Danube. 
Utterly dangerous as the symptoms of these risings 
were, we see, however, how deeply even at that 
time Christianity had taken root in Hungary. It 
very soon became apparent that the revolution was 
not only of a rehgious but of a political and social 
character. King Andrew issued rigorous laws, men- 
acing every one who did not return to the Christian 
religion and renounce the practice of heathenish 
customs, with loss of life and property. The de- 
stroyed churches were to be rebuilt, and the order 
of things introduced by Stephen be respected again. 



62 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

These laws and the punishments inflicted upon some 
of the stubborn adherents of paganism did not fail 
to produce their effect, and, in a short time, the 
rebellion was crushed and order and quiet gradually- 
restored throughout the country. 

And, strange to say, just as the Mohammedan Turks 
of our day ascribe the decline and downfall of their 
power to the many innovations introduced into their 
religious and social life, and discover the main source 
of their ruin in the assimilation to the West, precisely 
so spoke and argued the Hungarians of that day. 
They laid particular stress upon the fact that the 
nation, whilst adhering to the religion and customs 
of its ancestors, had been independent, strong, and 
mighty, and had even made the whole of Europe 
tremble ; but that now, since it had adopted the 
religion and customs of the West, the nation was 
weakened by internal dissensions, strangers had be- 
come her masters, foreign armies had penetrated into 
the very heart of the country — nay, Hungary had lost 
her independence and had become the vassal of a 
foreign power. Such representations could not fail 
to produce their effect. It was easy to convince the 
uncultivated Hungarians, who were not y^et confirmed 
in the Christian religion and but ill brooked its 
severe discipline, that all those troubles and misfor- 
tunes which had visited the country were the conse- 
quences of the introduction of Christianity, and that 
to achieve a splendid future for the nation, in har- 
mony with its glorious past, this must be done upon 
the ruins of Christianity and of the institutions in- 
troduced by Stephen. 



THE CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY. 63 

This great change, however repugnant it may have 
seemed to the Hungarians, was, nevertheless, un- 
avoidable. As previously stated, the foreign ele- 
ments which flooded the country, owing to the very 
large number of captives the Hungarians brought 
with them from every part of Europe, had wrought 
that change in the manners and habits of life in 
spite of all the reluctance of the former Asiatic 
nomads. These captives greatly outnumbering their 
masters, were mostly used for agricultural purposes, 
but their close contact with the ruling class unavoid- 
ably produced a mitigation of the rude military 
habits of the latter. The Hungarians eagerly lis- 
tened to the Christian chants and prayers of their 
subjects. They imitated them in their food and dress, 
and, although nearly two centuries had to pass be- 
fore the former wanderers on the Central-Asian 
steppes could get accustomed to permanent habita- 
tions, and, despite the aversion the proud warrior 
felt to the plow, the ice, nevertheless, began to 
break. The Asiatic mode of thinking had to be 
given up, and with the tenets of Christian tradition 
habits of Christian life were gradually introduced. 

This process of transformation was greatly quick- 
ened by the personal intercourse and family connec- 
tions of Duke Geyza and his chieftains with the 
court and nobility of the neighboring countries. 
Besides the involuntary immigration caused by the 
forays, we meet with a remarkable influx of foreign 
noblemen who, on the invitation of Duke Geyza, 
settled in the country, towards the end of the tenth 
century. The brothers Hunt and Pazman came from 



64 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

Suabia, Count Buzad from Meissen, Count Hermann 
from Nuremberg ; the Czech knights Radovan, Bogat, 
and Lodan came with large retinues ; many others 
immigrated from Italy and Greece, so that the high 
nobility of Hungary, already at the beginning of the 
conversion of the Magyars, had a large infusion of 
foreign blood. It may be added that the entire 
clergy of that day was composed of Czechs, Ger- 
mans, and Italians. The ground was, therefore, duly 
prepared, and it wanted only the iron hand of a reso- 
lute and wise ruler to achieve the work of conversion, 
and to accomplish the great task of transforming a 
formerly warlike and nomadic nation into a Chris- 
tian and peaceful community. This ruler was King 
Stephen I. 




CHAPTER VI. 

ST. STEPHEN, THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 

997-1038. 

King Stephen led the Hungarian nation from 
the darkness, of paganism into the light of Chris- 
tianity, and from the disorders of barbarism into the 
safer path of western civilization. He induced his 
people to abandon the fierce independence of no- 
madic life, and assigned to them a place in the dis- 
ciplined ranks of European society and of organized 
states. Under him, and through his exertions, the 
Hungarian people became a western nation. Never 
was a change of such magnitude, and we may add 
such a providential change, accomplished in so short 
a time, with so little bloodshed, and with such signal 
success as this remarkable transformation of the 
Hungarian people. The contemporaries of this great 
and noble man, those who assisted him in guiding 
the destinies of the Hungarian nation, gave him 
already full credit for the wise and patriotic course 
pursued by him, and the Hungarian nation of the 
present day still piously and gratefully cherishes his 
memory. To the Hungarians of to-day, although 
eight and a half centuries removed from St. Ste- 
phen, his form continues to be a living one, and 

65 



66 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

they still fondly refer to his exalted example, his 
acts, his opinions, and admonitions, as worthy to 
' inspire and admonish the young generations in their 
country. 

This need be no matter for surprise, for at no 
period of Hungary's history has her political contin- 
uity been interrupted in such a way as to make her 
lose sight of the noble source from which its great- 
ness sprang. No doubt a complete change has taken 
place in the political and social order, in the course 
of so many centuries, but the state structure, how- 
ever modified, still rests upon the deep and sure 
foundations laid by the wisdom of her first king. 
y/One day in the year, the 20th of August — called 
St. Stephen's day — is still hallowed to his memory. 
On that day his embalmed right hand is carried 
about with great pomp and solemnity, in a brilliant 
procession, accompanied by religious ceremonies, 
through ancient Buda, and shown to her populace. 
The kingdom of Hungary is called the realm of St. 
Stephen to this day, the Hungarian kings are still 
crowned with the crown of St. Stephen, and the 
nation acknowledges only him to be its king 
whose temples have been touched by the sacred 
crown. The Catholic Church in Hungary although 
it no more occupies its former pre-eminent position 
in the state, still retains enough of power, wealth, 
and splendor to bear ample testimony to the lavish 
liberality of St. Stephen. Thus the historian meets 
everywhere with traces of his benignant activity, and 
whilst the fame and saintliness of the great king 
have surrounded his name with a luminous halo in 



68 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

the annals of his nation, that very brilliancy has pre- 
vented from coming down to posterity such mere 
terrestrial and every-day details as would assist in 
drawing his portrait. The grand outlines of his 
form detach themselves vividly and sharply from the 
dark background of his age — but there is a lack of 
contemporary accounts which would help to fill up 
these outlines, and the legends of the succeeding 
generations, which make mention of him, can but 
ill supply this want, for they regard in him the 
saint only, and not the man. His deeds alone re- 
main to guide us in the task of furnishing a truthful 
picture of the founder of his country, and well may 
we apply to him the words of Scripture, that the tree 
shall be known by its fruit. 

Stephen was born in Gran (Esztergom), the first 
and most ancient capital of Hungary, about 969, at 
a time when his father had not yet succeeded to the 
exalted position of ruler over Hungary, and a mag- 
nificent memorial chapel in the Roman style of the 
tenth century, erected there, marks the event of his 
birth in that place. His mother Sarolta, Geyza's 
first wife, Avas the daughter of that Gyula, Duke of 
Transylvania, who, whilst upon a mission to Con- 
stantinople, in 943, had embraced the Christian faith 
and subsequently endeavored to spread it at home. 
Thus a Christian mother watched prayerfully at the 
cradle of young Stephen, and in early childhood, 
already, the tender mind of the boy was guided by 
the pious Count of San Severino. Adalbert, the 
Archbishop of Prague, who sought a martyr's death 
and subsequently won the martyr's crown, intro- 



THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 69 

duced him to the community of professing Chris- 
tians. With his wife Gisella, a Bavarian princess, 
at his side, he took his place among the Western 
rulers as their kinsman. While his long reign 
proved him to be true to his country and his na- 
tion, yet the paganism of the ancient Hungarians 
was quite foreign to his soul. 

After the first half of the tenth century religious 
ideas began to exercise a more powerful influence 
in Europe than before. The great movement which 
originated in the monastery of Cluny, in France, 
held out to the world the promise of a new sal- 
vation. Men of extraordinary endowments began 
again to proclaim with evangelical enthusiasm the 
mortification of the flesh, in order to exalt the soul, 
and the suppression of earthly desires for the pur- 
pose of restoring the true faith to its pristine glory. 
They insisted that the shepherd of the faithful 
souls, the Church, should be freed from all earthly 
fetters and interests, for, just as the soul was above 
the body, so was the Church superior to the Avorldly 
communities. The Church therefore, they taught, 
must be raised from her humiliating position, her 
former dependence changed into a state of the most 
complete freedom. As a consequence, the visi- 
ble head of the Church, the Pope, could not be al- 
lowed to remain the servant of the head of the 
worldly power, the emperor, for it was the former 
that Providence had entrusted with the care of the 
destinies and happiness of humanity. These ideas 
spread triumphantly and with incredible rapidity 
throughout all Europe. They were heralded by 



70 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

a sort of prophetic frenzy ; and soul-stirring fanati- 
cism followed in their train. The age of asceticism, 
long past and become an object almost of con- 
tempt, was rescued from oblivion and revived. The 
despised body was again subjected to tortures and 
vexations, and the purified soul longed for the 
destruction of its own earthly existence in order to 
soar on high freed from mundane trammels. It was 
the miraculous age of hermits, saints, and martyrs 
who made it resound with their wailing and weep- 
ing, changing this home of dust into a valley of 
tears, so that the soul transported to the regions of 
bliss might appear in greater splendor to the dazzled 
eyes of the earthly beholder. The popes, moreover, 
riding high on the unchained waves, guided the 
Church through the tempest of the newly awak- 
ened religious passions, with a watchful eye and 
steady persistence toward one end — the exaltation 
of the papal power over that of the emperors. At 
the end of the tenth century Pope Sylvester II. was 
the representative of the spirit of the age clamoring 
for the aggrandizement of the papal power, and Otto 
III. represented in opposition to him the imperial 
power, undermined by the new ideas. Since the over- 
throw of the Western Roman empire the world had 
not been called upon to witness a contest of greater 
import than the impending struggle between these 
two rival powers. The great upheaval, indeed, which 
was to shake Europe to its very centre, did not take 
place until half a century later, but the seeds, from 
which the war of ecclesiastical investiture, the stir 
of the crusades, and the universality of the papal 



THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. /I 

power were to spring, were already scattered through- 
out the soil which had lain barren through many 
centuries. 

This was the age which gave birth to Stephen and 
in which he was educated, but his exalted mind 
rejected the exaggerations, eccentricities, and errors 
of his time and accepted only its noble sentiments 
and ideas. His sober-mindedness was equal to his 
religious enthusiasm, and as his innate energy ex- 
ceeded both, he left it to religious visionaries to in- 
dulge in ascetic dreams. He desired to be the apos- 
tle of the promises of his faith, but not their martyr, 
^^e made the maintenance, defence, and extension of 
Christianity the task of his life, because he saw in its 
establishment the only sure means for the safety and 
_ happiness of his people. He pursued no schemes 
looking to adventures in foreign lands, but devoted 
all his thoughts, feelings, and energies to his own 
nation, subordinating to her interests everybody and 
every thing else. He defended these alike against 
imperial attacks and papal encroachments. His eyes 
were fixed on the Cross, but his strong right arm 
rested on the hilt of his sword, and his apostolic zeal 
never made him forget for a single moment his duty 
to a people which had gone through many trials, 
whose position amongst the European nations was 
a very difficult one, whose destinies rested in his 
hands, and who were yet to be called upon to play 
a great part in the history of the world. 

Stephen was about twenty-eight years old when he 
succeeded his father in 997. He at once embarked 
with the enthusiasm of youth, coupled with the 



'J2 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

deliberation and constancy of manhood, on his mis- 
sion to bring to a happy conclusion the task begun 
by his mother. In this work he was sedulously 
assisted by Astrik and his monastic brethren, and 
-the gaze of the foreign Christian lords, who had 
immigrated with his Bavarian wife, as well as of 
the great number of lay and ecclesiastical persons 
who came flocking to the country, was centred 
upon the young royal leader, who surpassed them all 
in zeal and enthusiasm. He spared no pains, nor 
was he deterred by dangers ; he visited in person 
the remotest parts of the realm, bringing light to 
places where darkness prevailed, and imparting truth 
where error stalked defiantly. He sought out the 
men of distinction and the mighty of the land, and 
the hearts which were closed to the message of the 
foreign monks freely opened to his wise and friendly 
exhortations. Where he could not prevail by the 
charms of his apostolic persuasion he unhesitatingly 
threw the weight of his royal sword into the scale. 
Whilst battling with the arms of truth he did not re-^ 
coil from using violence, if necessary, in its service./ 
Fate did not spare him the cruel necessity of having 
to proceed even against his own blood. 

The more rapidly and successfully the work of 
conversion went on, the greater became the appre- 
hension and exasperation of those who looked upon 
the destruction of the ancient pagan faith as danger- 
ous and ruinous to their nation. Nor did these re- 
coil from any hazard to maintain their faith and to 
prevent the national ruin anticipated by them. They 
took up arms on more than one occasion, as has 



THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. J I 

been previously mentioned, but Stephen succeeded 
in quelling the dangerous rebellions. Assisted by 
the foreign knights, he broke the power of pagan- 
ism, and he showed no regard for any pretence of 
national aspirations. Those who still harbored the 
ancient faith in their hearts kept it secretly locked 
up there, and for the time being at least did homage 
to the new faith and the power of the king. The 
possessions of the rebels were devoted to ecclesi- 
astical uses, and the king, at the same time, be- 
stirred himself in the organization of the triumphant 
Church. He divided the converted territory into 
ecclesiastical districts, providing each with a spiritual 
chief, and placing the ecclesiastical chief of Gran 
at the head of all and of the Church government 
instituted by him. He caused fortified places to 
be erected throughout the newly organized Church 
territory for the defence of Christianity, as well as 
for the maintenance of his own worldly power, which 
began nearly to rival that of the other Christian 
kings. 

But in order successfully to carry into effect 
these measures, Stephen had to obtain their con- 
firmation by at least one of the leading powers 
which then shared in the mastery over Europe — 
namely, imperialism and papacy. The emperors, on 
the one hand, claimed supreme authority over all 
the pagan populations converted to Christianity, 
while the papal see, on the other hand, was in- 
clined to protect against the empire the smaller na- 
tions, which were jealous of their independence, in 
order to gain allies for the impending struggle of the 



>-/ 



74 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

Church against the empire. Stephen was quick to 
choose between these two. The German Church — 
except in the abortive attempt made by Bishop Pil- 
grin — had contributed but Httle to the conversion of 
the Hungarian people, and it could therefore lay no 
claim to exercise any authority over the Church of 
Hungary. Nor had the German kings done any 
thing to assist Geyza and Stephen in their attempts 
at conversion. Stephen had before him the example 
of his brother-in-law, Boleslas of Poland, who had but 
recently applied to the papal see for the bestowal of 
the royal crown, in order to secure the independence 
of his position as a ruler and that of the Church in his 
realm. The religious bent of Stephen's mind, com- 
bined with his acute perception of the true interests 
of his country, induced him, at last, in the spring of 
1000, to send a brilliant embassy to Rome, under the 
lead of the faithful, experienced, and indefatigable 
Astrik. 

Pope Sylvester H., than whom no one exerted him- 
self more strenuously to increase the papal power, 
received the Hungarian envoys cordially, and upon 
learning from Astrik their mission, he exclaimed : '' I 
am but apostolic, but thy master who sent thee here 
is, in truth, the apostle of Christ himself ! " He 
readily complied with Stephen's every request, ad- 
ding even more signal favors. He confirmed the 
bishoprics already established, and empowered him 
to establish additional ones, conferring upon Ste- 
phen, at the same time, such rights in the admin- 
istration of the affairs of the Church of Hungary as 
hitherto had been allowed only to the most illustrious 



THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 75 

princes in Christendom, the sovereigns of France and 
Germany. He granted to Stephen and his successors 
the right of styHng themselves " apostolic kings," and 
to have carried before them, on solemn occasions, 
the double cross, as an emblem of their independ- 
ent ecclesiastical authority. As a further mark of 
his favor, the Pope presented Stephen with the 
crown which had been destined for Boleslas of Po- 
land, in order to symbolize for all times to come the 
blessing bestowed upon the Hungarian kingdom by 
God's representative upon earth. The crown of to- 
•day, weighing altogether 136 ounces, is not quite 
identical with the crown that adorned St. Stephen's 
head. It now consists of two parts. The upper 
and more ancient part is the crown sent by Pope 
Sylvester, the lower one has been added at a later 
date. The former is formed by two intersecting 
hoops and connected at the four lower ends by a 
border. On its top is a small globe capped by a 
cross, which is now in an inclined position, and be- 
neath it is seen a picture of the Saviour in sitting 
posture, surrounded by the sun, the moon, and two 
trees. The entire surface of the two hoops is adorned 
with the figures of the twelve apostles, each having 
an appropriate Latin inscription, but four of these 
figures are covered by the lower crown. The lower 
or newer crown is an open diadem from which pro- 
ject, in front, representations of ruins, which termi- 
nate in a crest alternating with semicircular bands. 
The seams of the latter are covered with smaller- 
sized pearls, and larger oval pearls adorn the crests- 
. Nine small drooping chains, laid out with precious 



7^ THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

stones, are attached to the lower rim. A large sap- 
phire occupies the centre of the front of the diadem, 
and above it, on a semicircular shield, is a represen- 
tation of the Saviour. To the left and right of the 
sapphire are representations of the archangels, Mi- 
chael and Gabriel, and of the four saints, Damianus, 
Dominic, Cosmus, and George, and, finally, of the 
Greek emperors, Constantine Porphyrogenitus and 
Michael Ducas, and of the Hungarian king Geyza, 
with inscriptions. With regard to the upper crown 
no doubt whatever is entertained as to its being the 
one sent by Pope Sylvester, and concerning the 
lower crown Hungarian historians state that it was 
sent, about 1073, by the Greek emperor, Michael Du- 
cas, to the Hungarian duke, Geyza, as a mark of grati- 
tude for the good services rendered to him by the 
latter. The exact date when the two crowns united 
cannot be ascertained. This minute description of the 
crown of Hungary may be well pardoned, considering 
the antiquity and the high veneration in which this 
relic of the past is held by the Hungarian people. 

The legend of St. Stephen speaks thus of Astrik's 
mission to the Eternal City : *' Father Astrik hav- 
ing accomplished his errand in Rome, and obtained 
even more than he had asked for, returned joyfully 
home. As he was nearing Gran the king came out to 
meet him .wath great pomp, and Father Astrik 
showed him the presents he had brought with him 
from Rome, the royal crown and the cross. Stephen 
offered up thanks to God, and subsequently expressed 
his gratitude to the Pope for the presents received. 
The great prelates, the clergy, the lords, and the peo- 



THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 7/ 

pie having listened to the contents of the letter con- 
veying the apostolic benediction, with one heart and 
soul and with shouts of joy acclaimed Stephen their 
king, and having been anointed with the sacred oil, 
he was crowned on the day of Mary's ascension (15th 
of August) at Gran." 

That highly important letter brought by Astrik 
from Rome, which established the independent au- 
thority of the Hungarian kings over the national 
church, has been preserved to this day. The fol- 
lowing lines of the papal bull may in some meas- 
ure characterize the age in which they were written, 
and illustrate, at the same time, the importance 
which was ascribed to these missives during many 
centuries : 

" My glorious son," the letter proceeds to say, 
after having in the introduction exalted Stephen's 
apostolic zeal, '' all that which thou hast desired of 
the apostolic see, the crown, the royal title, the met- 
ropolitan see at Gran, and the other bishoprics, we 
joyfully allow and grant thee by the authority de- 
rived from Almighty God and Saints Peter and Paul, 
together with the apostolic and our own benediction. 
The country which thou hast offered, together with 
thy own self, to St. Peter, and the people of Hun- 
gary, present and future, being henceforth received 
under the protection of the Holy Roman Church, we 
return them to thy wisdom, thy heirs, and rightful 
successors, to possess, rule, and govern the same. 
Thy heirs and successors, too, having been lawfully 
elected by the magnates of the land, shall be like- 
wise bound to testify to ourselves and our successors 



78 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

their obedience and respect, to prove themselves 
subjects of the Holy Roman Church, to steadfastly 
adhere to, and support the religion of Christ our 
Lord and Saviour. And as thy Highness did not 
object to undertake the apostolic office of proclaim- 
ing and spreading the faith of Christ, we feel moved 
to confer, besides, upon thy Excellency and out of 
regard for thy merits, upon thy heirs and lawful suc- 
cessors, this especial privilege : we permit, desire, 
and request that, as thou and thy successors will be 
crowned with the crown we sent thee, the wearing 
of the double cross may serve thee and them as an 
apostolic token, even so that, according to the teach- 
ings of God's mercy, thou and they may direct and 
order, in our and our successors' place and stead, the 
present and future churches of thy realm. ^ * * 
We also beseech Almighty God that thou mayest 
rule and wear the crown, and that He shall cause 
the fruits of His truth to grow and increase ; that 
He may abundantly water with the dew of His 
blessing the new plants of thy realm ; that He 
may preserve unimpaired thy country for thee, 
and thee for thy country; that He may protect 
thee against thy open and secret foes, and adorn 
thee, after the vexations of thy earthly rule, with 
the eternal crown in His heavenly kingdom." 

The brilliant successes so rapidly achieved by 
Stephen during the first years of his reign se- 
cured the triumph of Christianity and of the royal 
authority in the western half of the country only. 
The adherents of the ancient faith and liberty still 
remained in a majority in the eastern, more-thinly 



THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 79 

peopled regions beyond the Theiss and in Transyl- 
vania. Gyula, the duke of Transylvania, and the uncle 
of Stephen, was not slow in protesting against the 
new kingdom and the innovations coupled with it. 
The rebellion failed, as we have already seen. Gyula 
and his whole family were made captives by the vic- 
tors, and neither he nor his posterity ever regained 
their lost power. Transylvania was more closely 
united with the mother country, and from that time, 
during a period extending over more than five centu- 
ries, was ruled by vayvodes appointed by the kings. 
Soon after Stephen opposed victoriously the Petche- 
negs, the allies of the defeated Gyula, who were set- 
tled beyond the Transylvanian mountains in the coun- 
try known at present as Roumania, and having also 
defeated Akhtum, who, trusting in the protection of 
the Greek emperor, was disposed to act the master 
in the region enclosed by the Danube, Theiss, and 
Maros, there was no one in the whole land who — 
openly, at least — dared to refuse homage to the 
crown pressing the temples of Stephen and to the 
double cross. During the twenty years succeeding 
the events just narrated, history is entirely silent as 
to any great martial enterprise of Stephen. It is 
true that hostilities were frequent along the north- 
ern and western borders against the Poles and Czechs, 
but they were never of a character to endanger the 
territorial integrity of the country. During those 
years of comparative peace Stephen firmly estab- 
lished the Hungarian Christian kingdom. 

The Christian Church was the corner-stone of all 
social and political order in the days of Stephen. 



8o THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

The Church pointed out the principal objects of 
human endeavor, marked out the ways leading to 
the accomplishment of those aims, drew the bounds 
of the liberty of action, and prescribed to mankind 
its duties. It educated, instructed, and disciplined the 
people in the name and in the place of the state, and 
in doing this the Church acted for the benefit Of the 
state. Hence it was that Stephen, in organizing the 
Hungarian Christian Church and placing it on a firmer 
basis, consulted quite as much the interests of his 
royal power as the promptings of his apostolic zeal. 
Where the Christian faith gained ground, there the 
respect for royalty also took root, and the first care 
of royalty, when its authority had become powerful, 
was to preserve the authority of the Church. 

Immediately on his accession to the throne, 
Stephen addressed himself to the great and arduous 
task, and in all places where the promises of the 
holy faith, scattered by his proselyting zeal, met 
with a grateful soil, he established the earliest re- 
ligious communities. Later, as the number of par- 
ishes rapidly increased, he appointed chief prelates 
to superintend and maintain the flocks and to keep 
them together. The ecclesiastical dignities and of- 
fices were conferred, in the beginning, without ex- 
ception, upon members of the religious orders, they 
being at that time the most faithful warriors of Chris- 
tianity against paganism, and the most devoted ser- 
vants of the triumphant church. Stephen took good 
care of them, and rewarded them according to their 
merits. He founded four abbeys for these pious 
monks, who all of them belonged to the religious 



THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 8 1 

order of St. Benedict. The abbey of Pannonhalom 
was the wealthiest and most distinguished among 
these ; and to this day, it maintains the chief rank 
among the greatly increased number of kindred so- 
cieties. The first schools were connected with the 
cathedrals and monasteries, and although their mis- 
sion consisted mainly in propagating the new church 
and faith, they yet cultivated the scanty learning of 
the age. 

Stephen endowed the bishoprics and monasteries 
with a generosity truly royal. He granted them 
large possessions in land, together with numerous 
bondsmen inhabiting the estates. The Hungarian 
Catholic Church has preserved the larger part of 
these grants to this day. His munificence was dis- 
played in the cathedral at Stuhlweissenburg (Szekes- 
fejervar), built in honor of the Virgin Mary, of 
whose marvels of enchantment the old chronicles 
speak with reverential awe. The chronicler calls it 
" the magnificent church famous for its wondrous 
workmanship, the walls of which are adorned with 
beautiful carvings, and whose floor is inlaid with 
marble slabs," and then he proceeds in this strain : 
" Those can bear witness to the truth of my words 
who have beheld there with their own eyes the 
numerous chasubles, sacred utensils, and other orna- 
ments, the many exquisite tablets wrought of pure 
gold and inlaid with the most precious jewels about 
the altars, the chalice of admirable workmanship 
standing on Christ's table, and the various vessels of 
crystal, onyx, gold, and silver with which the sa- 
cristy was crowded." 



82 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

Stephen's munificence was not confined to his own 
realm, and numerous memorials of his beneficence 
and generosity are still preserved in foreign lands. 
As soon as Christianity had gained a firm foothold 
in the land, and the Hungarian people felt no more 
as strangers in the family of Christian nations, the 
natives, either singly or in larger numbers, began to 
journey to the revered cities of Rome, Constanti- 
nople, and Jerusalem. Stephen took care that these 
pilgrims should feel at home in the strange places 
they visited. Thus, amongst other things, he had a 
church and dwelling-house built in Rome for the 
accommodation of twelve canons, providing it also 
with a hospitiinn (inn). In Constantinople and Jeru- 
salem also he caused a convent and church to be 
erected, within whose hospitable walls the Hungarian 
pilgrim might find rest for his weary body, after the 
fatigues of the long journey, and spiritual comfort 
for his thirsting soul. He was ever mindful of the in- 
terests of Christianity both at home and abroad. He 
not only founded the Hungarian Christian Church, 
but knew how to make it universally respected, and, 
in his own time already, the popes were in the habit 
of referring to Hungary as the " archiregnum " — that 
is, a country superior to the others, 
"^n establishing the Hungarian kingdom Stephen 
kecessarily shaped its institutions after the pattern 
of the Western States, but fortunately for the nation 
he possessed a rare discrimination which made him 
imitate his neighbors in those things only which 
were beneficial or unavoidable, whilst he rejected 
their errors and refused to introduce them into his 



THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 83 

own land. At that period feudalism, although it had 
sadly degenerated, prevailed, England alone ex- 
cepted, throughout the whole West. It was a sys- 
tem which did not permit the strengthening of the 
central power of the state, and the countries sub- 
jected to it were divided up into parts but loosely 
connected, each of which acknowledged an almost 
independent master, who, although he held his county 
or duchy from his king, and owned and governed it 
by virtue of that tenure, was yet powerful enough to 
defy with impunity the sovereign himself. Without 
adverting to the pitiful dismemberment of Italy, we 
need only mention that France was divided into 
about fifty, and Germany into five small principali- 
ties of this character. The kings themselves might 
make use of their kingly title, they might bask in 
the splendor of their own royalty, but of the pleni- 
tude of their royal power they could but rarely and 
then only temporarily boast. 

Stephen's chief aim was to enhance the royal power 
by rendering it as independent as he possibly could 
of restrictions on the part of the nation, and to intro- 
duce such institutions as would prove most efficacious 
in the defence of the integrity and unity of nation and 
country. He left the nobility — the descendants of 
those who had taken possession of the soil at the 
conquest of Hungary— in the undisturbed enjoy- 
ment of their ancient privileges ; he did not restrict 
their rights, but in turn did not allow himself to be 
hampered by them. He only introduced an innova- 
tion with reference to the tenure of their property, 
which he changed from tribal to individual posses- 



84 ■ THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

sion, using his royal authority to protect each man 
in the possession of the estates thus allotted to him. 
The nobles governed themselves, administered justice 
amongst themselves, through men of their own selec- 
tion, and the king interfered only if he was especially 
requested to judge between them. The nobles had 
always free access to the king's person, not only dur- 
ing Stephen's reign, but for many centuries after- 
wards. The nobility was exempted from the payment 
of any kind of taxes into the royal treasury, and 
they joined the king's army only if the country was 
menaced by a foreign foe, or if they chose to offer 
their services of their own free will. 

Inasmuch as the great power of the nobility had 
its foundations on freehold possessions in land, Ste- 
phen was careful to support the dignity of the royal 
power by the control of large domains. The royal 
family were already the owners of private estates of 
large extent, and to these the king now added those 
vast tracts of land which, scattered throughout the 
whole realm, and more particularly extending along 
the frontiers, were without masters, and could not 
well pass into private hands, as the scant Hunga- 
rian population was inadequate for their occupa- 
tion. These domains, which, for the most part, were 
thinly inhabited by the indigenous conquered popu- 
lations, speaking their own languages, and the col- 
onization of which by foreigners became a special 
object with the kings, were now declared state prop- 
erty, and as such taken possession of and admin- 
istered by Stephen, He divided these possessions 
into small domains, called in Latin comitatus, coun- 



THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 85 

ty, and in Hungarian 7negye, eyre or circuit, and placed 
at the head of the administration of each county a 
royal official styled conies^ count. These districts sub- «/ 
sequently gave rise to the county system, which was 
destined to play such an important part in the history 
of the country, but originally they were designed to 
answer a twofold purpose, one financial and one mili- 
tary. One portion of the people living on these 
royal lands had to hand over to the royal treasury 
a certain part of their produce, whilst another por- 
tion was bound to military service for life. In 
this way the royal counties furnished a sort of 
standing army, always at the disposal of the king, 
and supplied, at the same time, the revenues neces- 
sary to support that army. Stephen found also other 
means to replenish his treasury and to add to his mili- 
tary strength. The revenues derived from the min- 
eral and salt mines, and from the coining of money, 
flowed into the royal cofTers ; he levied, besides, a 
thirtieth on all merchandise, market-tolls at fairs, 
and collected tolls on the roads, and at bridges 
and ferries. The towns and the privileged terri- 
tories had to pay taxes, and, on a given day, to 
send presents to the king. Stephen added, besides, 
to his military strength by granting to individuals — 
mostly to native or foreign noblemen of reduced 
circumstances — extensive estates in fee, subject to 
the obligation, in case of need, of joining the royal 
army with a fixed number of armed men. The 
Petchenegs, Szeklers, and Ruthenes settled as border 
guards along the frontiers were also obliged to ren- 
der military service, and even the royal cities sent 



86 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

their contingents of troops equipped by them. This 
brief enumeration of the means employed by Stephen 
to strengthen his throne, will make it evident that he 
provided abundant resources for maintaining the royal 
power, such as none of his neighbors, or even the 
rulers of the countries further west, had, then, at 
their disposal. 

The royal court was the centre and faithful mirror 
of that kingly power, and, in its ordering and con- 
duct, Stephen was careful to imitate foreign courts, 
not only in their main features, but at times even in 
their most minute details. The court of his imperial 
brother-in-law, Henry II. of Germany, especially, 
served him as a model. Thus it was held that the 
person of the king was sacred, and that to offend 
against him who was the embodiment of the majesty 
of the state, was looked upon as a crime to be pun- 
ished with loss of life and fortune. The king stood 
above all the living, and above the law itself. Ste- 
phen surrounded himself with the distinguished men, 
lay and ecclesiastical, of the realm, and, aided by their 
counsel, administered the affairs of the country, but 
his word and will was a law to everybody. Amongst 
the officers of his court were a lord-palatine, a court- 
judge, a lord of the treasury, and many others, who, 
in part, assisted him in the government of the state 
and, in part, ministered to the comforts of the court. 
At a much later period only, after the lapse of centu- 
ries, did the offices of palatine, judge, and treasurer, 
become dignities of the realm. 

The government of the country in time of peace 
involved no great care or trouble, for only the royal 



THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 8/ 

domains or counties and the royal cities possessing 
privileges fell within the sphere of the direct power 
of the king and court. The Church and nobility 
governed themselves and applied to the king in 
cases of appeal only, the royal towns conducted 
their affairs through the agency of judges and chief 
magistrates elected by themselves, whilst the bulk of 
the people, composed of the various classes of bond- 
men and servants, were completely subjected to the 
authority and jurisdiction of the lords of the land. 
'The bondman might move about freely, but he could 
never emancipate himself from the tutelage of the 
landlords. The Hungarian nation was composed of 
the same social strata which were to be met with 
everywhere in the West, and the growth of these 
pursued the same direction, differing, however, in 
one particular — the relation of the large landed 
proprietors, the nobility, to their king. To these 
exceptional relations must be attributed the fact 
that the political changes in the country did not 
run in parallel grooves with those of the other 
western states. Stephen granted no constitution, 
all complete, to his people ; its growth was the 
work of centuries, but the country was indebted to 
him for having organized the state in such a man- 
ner that, whilst there was nothing in the way of a 
free and healthy development of its political institu- 
tions, its inherent strength was such that it could 
successfully resist the many and severe shocks to 
which in the course of nearly a thousand years it 
was subjected. 

The country prospered during the long reign of 



88 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

King Stephen, thanks to his untiring labors and to 
the rare moderation with which he tempered his pas- 
sionate zeal. The nation became gradually familiar 
with the changes wrought, and began to accept the 
new order of things, although it could not quite for- 
get the old ways. Old memories revived again and 
again, and those especially who bowed down before 
the crown and cross from compulsion and not from 
conviction, were filled with anxiety as to the uncer- 
tain future. Stephen thoroughly understood the 
feelings and prejudices of his people, and he care- 
fully avoided every act, and steered clear of every 
complication which might tend to rouse their pas- 
sions. He well knew that time alone could give 
permanence and stability to the institutions created 
by him, and that years of peace and continued ex- 
ertions were necessary to consolidate his work. Two 
great objects, therefore, occupied his mind con- 
tinually, even in his old age ; in the first place, to 
defend the realm against external dangers, and in 
the second place, to raise a successor to himself to 
whom he might safely entrust the continuation of 
the work commenced by him. 

But fate denied him the accomplishment of either 
of his objects. As long as Henry H., his brother- 
in-law, reigned there was peace between Hungary 
and the German empire, but the death of the latter 
in 1024 severed the bond of amity between the two 
countries. The feelings entertained by Conrad H. 
toward the kingdom of Hungary were very different 
from those manifested by his predecessor, and this 
change of sentiment was soon shown by Conrad's 



THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 89 

laying claim, by virtue of his imperial prerogative, 
to the sovereignty over Stephen's realm. Conrad, 
with his ally, the Duke of Bohemia, and the united 
forces of his vast empire, began war in 1030, and 
overran with his armies the country on both banks 
of the Danube, as far as the Gran and the Raab. 
Stephen was undismayed, his courage rather rose 
with the perils environing him. He bade the people 
throughout the land to fast and pray, for not alone 
his kingdom was at stake, but the independence of 
the Hungarian Church was menaced by the imperial 
forces. Those who looked with indifference at the 
cause of the Hungarian crown and the cross, had 
their enthusiasm excited by the proud satisfaction 
of fighting in defence of the national dignity and 
liberty. Amongst those western nations who had 
been for so long a time harassed by the military ex- 
peditions of the Hungarians, the German people, 
feeling its strength, was the first to turn its arms 
against the former assailants. But Conrad's attack 
proved unsuccessful against the united strength of 
the king and the nation, between whom the peril 
from without had restored full harmony, and he was 
compelled to leave the country in the autumn of the 
very year in which he entered upon the war, de- 
jectedly returning to Germany after a campaign of 
utter failure instead of the expected triumphs. 
Peace was concluded in the following year, and the 
emperor acknowledged the independence of the 
young but powerful kingdom. Conrad's son, who 
subsequently succeeded to the imperial throne as 
Henry HI., visited Stephen at his court, in order to 



90 THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 

draw closer the ties of amity between the two coun- 
tries. The danger had passed for the time being, 
but the apprehensions of Stephen were far from 
being allayed as he pondered on the future. The 
peace just concluded did not satisfy him ; there 
were no guaranties for its preservation, nor had he 
any faith in its being a permanent peace, for he well 
knew that the German kings, as long as they wore 
the imperial crown, would not fail to repeat their 
attacks on the independence of the young kingdom. 
Reflections of this sombre nature often filled his 
soul with despondency, and then came occasions 
when he entertained fears that the nation might not 
be strong enough to withstand the dangers threaten- 
ing her, or that if she triumphed she would, in the 
intoxication of her victory, turn with exasperation 
against those innovations which had brought the 
foreign foes upon her. 

All his hopes centred in Duke Emeric, his only 
son, who, under the care of the pious Bishop Ger- 
hard, grew up to be a fine youth, full of promise, 
in whom his fond father discovered all those quali- 
ties which he wished him to possess for the good 
of his nation. The young prince was, indeed, very 
zealous in his faith ; his piety amounted almost 
to frenzy, and he turned away from the world, 
despising its joys and harassing struggles, and seek- 
ing the salvation of his soul in self-denial and the 
mortification of his flesh. He was, in truth, the holy 
child of a holy parent, but not born to rule as the 
fit son of a great king. He preferred the cloister to 
the royal throne, and, far from inheriting the apos- 



THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 9 1 

tolic virtues of his august father, he was rather in- 
clined to indulge in the errors of the age he lived in. 
But the aged king, dazzled by the lustre of his son's 
holiness, was blind to his shortcomings. He had 
faith in him, for in him he saw his only hope. In 
order fitly to prepare him for his future royal mis- 
sion, he set down for him in writing the experiences 
of his long and beneficent rule, and the wisdom and 
goodness treasured up in his heart and mind. These 
admonitions addressed to his son have been spared 
by all-devouring time, and to this day they are apt 
to delight and instruct us as one of the most precious 
relics of that age. The reader will surely be pleased 
with a few specimens of these exhortations : 

'' I cannot refrain, my beloved son," Stephen wrote, 
''from giving thee advice, instruction, and commands 
whereby to guide thyself and thy subjects. * * * 
Strive to obey sedulously the injunctions of thy 
father, for if thou despisest these thou lovest neither 
God nor man. Be therefore dutiful, my son ; thou 
hast been brought up amidst delights and treasures, 
and knowest nothing of the arduous labors of war 
and the perils of hostile invasions by foreign nations, 
in the midst of which nearly my whole life has been 
passed. The time has arrived to leave behind thee 
those pillows of luxuriousness which are apt to ren- 
der thee weak and frivolous, to make thee waste thy 
virtues, and to nourish in thee thy sins. Harden thy 
soul in order that thy mind may attentively listen to 
my counsels." 

After enlarging in ten paragraphs upon the topic 
of his counsels, he proceeds as follows : " I command, 



92 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

counsel, and advise thee, above all, to preserve care- 
fully the apostolic and Catholic faith if thou wishest 
thy kingly crown to be held in respect, and to set 
such an example to thy subjects that the clergy 
may justly call thee a Christian man, -5^ * ^ {qj- 
he who does not adorn his faith with good deeds — 
the one being a dead thing without the others — can- 
not rule in honor." 

Stephen then lays down rules of conduct towards 
the magnates of the realm, the lay lords, the high 
dignitaries, and the warriors, as follows : " They are, 
my dear son, thy fathers and thy brothers, neither 
call them nor make them thy servents. Let them 
combat for thee, but not serve thee. Rule over 
them peaceably, humbly, and gently, without anger, 
pride, and envy, bearing in mind that all men arc 
equal, that nothing exalts more than humility, nor 
is there any thing more degrading than pride and 
envy. If thou wilt be peaceable, ever}^ one will love 
thee and call thee a brave king, but if thou wilt be 
irritable, overbearing, and envious, and look down 
upon the lords, the might of the warriors will weaken 
thy kingly state, and thou wilt lose thy realm. 
Govern them with thy virtues, so that, inspired by 
love for thee, they may adhere to thy royal dignity." 

He then recommends, above all, patience and care- 
ful inquiry in the administration of justice in these 
words : '' Whenever a capital cause or other cause of 
great importance be brought before thee for judg- 
ment, be not impatient, nor indulge in oaths before- 
hand that the accused shall be brought to punish- 
ment. Do not hasten to pronounce judgment thy- 



THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 93 

self, lest thy royal dignity be impaired thereby, but 
leave the cause rather in the hands of the regular 
judges. Fear the functions of a judge, and even the 
name of a judge, and rather rejoice in being and 
having the name of a righteous king. Patient kings 
rule, impatient ones oppress. If, however, there be 
a cause which it is fit for thee to decide, judge merci- 
fully and patiently to the enhancement of the praise 
and glory of thy crown." 

Speaking of the foreigners settled in the country, 
he says : " The Roman empire owed its growth, and 
its rulers their glory and power, chiefly to the nu- 
merous wise and noble men who gathered within its 
boundaries from every quarter of the world, ^ * ^ 
Foreigners coming from different countries and 
places to settle here bring with them a variety of 
languages, customs, instructive matters, and arms, 
which all contribute to adorn and glorify the royal 
court, holding in check, at the same time, foreign 
powers. A country speaking but one language, and 
where uniform customs prevail, is weak and frail. 
Therefore I enjoin on thee, my son, to treat and be- 
have towards them decorously, so that they shall 
more cheerfully abide with thee than elsewhere. For 
if thou shouldst spoil what I have built up, and scat- 
ter what I have gathered, thy realm would surely 
suffer great detriment from it." 

The preference of Stephen for the immigrants 
from abroad did not degenerate into contempt for 
ancient customs, for he thus concludes : " It is both 
glorious and royal to respect the laws of the fore- 
fathers and to imitate ancestors worthy of reverence. 



94 THE SrORY OF HUNGARY. 

He who holds in contempt the decisions of his pre- 
decessors will not keep the laws of God. Conform, 
therefore, my dear son, to my institutions, and fol- 
low without hesitation my customs, which befit the 
royal dignity. It would be difficult for thee to 
govern a realm of this character without following 
the precedents laid down by those who governed 
before thee. Adhere, therefore, to my customs, so 
that thou shalt be deemed the first amongst thine, 
and merit the praise of the stranger. * * -^^ The 
evil-minded ruler who stains himself with cruelty 
vainly calls himself king ; he but deserves the name 
of a tyrant. I therefore beseech and enjoin upon 
thee, my beloved son, thou delight of my heart and 
hope of the coming generation, be, above all, gra- 
cious, not only to thy kinsmen, to princes, and to 
dukes, but also to thy neighbors and subjects ; be 
merciful and forbearing not only to the powerful 
but to the weak ; and, finally, be strong, lest good 
fortune elate thee, and bad fortune depress thee. Be 
humble, moderate, and gentle, be honorable and 
modest, for these virtues are the chief ornaments of 
the kingly crown." 

But the young duke was not fated to realize the 
hopes of his fond father. In the very year (103 1), 
and on the very day, say the chronicles, on which 
Stephen intended to have his son annointed before 
the nation as his successor, the mysterious edict 
of divine Providence suddenly took him away. In 
place of the crown of terrestrial power, his unstained 
life, nipped in the bud, was to be rewarded by the 
glory of everlasting salvation. 



THE FIRST KING OF HUNGARY. 95 

This sad blow prostrated the aged king, who had 
already been ailing, throwing him on his bed, and 
from that moment up to the day of his death he was 
unable to recover either his bodily or mental 
strength. Bereft of all hope and left to himself 
with his great sorrow and harassing doubts, he 
looked about him irresolutely for one on whose 
shoulders the cares of royalty should rest after his 
departure. The descendants of his uncle Michael 
were still living, and his choice fell upon them, they 
being rightfully entitled to succeed to the throne. 
But he was foiled in his intention by the opposition 
of the court, where the foreigners rallying round 
Queen Gisella had obtained the mastery, and where 
they now resorted to every evil scheme to compel 
the decrepit king to designate as his successor Duke 
Peter, who resided at the court, and was the son of one 
of the king's sisters, and Ottone Urseolo, the Doge 
of Venice. He finally yielded, and by this act the 
vessel of State which he had piloted for nearly half 
a century with a strong arm and great circumspec- 
tion, was drawn into a most dangerous current. 
Stephen was the founder of the kingdom of Hun- 
gary ; to others was left the inheritance of defending 
and strengthening it. Tie died in 1038 on Mary's 
Ascension Day, the anniversary of the same day on 
which, thirty-eight years before, he had placed the 
crown on his head. On the day of his death Ste- 
phen gathered about him his courtiers and the mag- 
nates of the land, and commended the realm to 
their care, but, as if distrustful of them, he, in his 
last prayer, placed both the church and the kingdom 



96 



THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 



founded by him under the patronage of the Holy 
Virgin Mary. Five centuries later Stephen was 
canonized and placed upon the calendar of saints by 
the Church of Rome, and the event of the exaltation 
of their first king and apostle was celebrated as a 
great national holiday by the people. Time has 
preserved St. Stephen's right hand and the crown 
which his piety earned for him, but the brightest and 
noblest monument he erected to himself is the crea- 
tion of a commonwealth whose free institutions, un- 
impaired strength and independence have survived 
the storms of nearly nine centuries. 




'S^"^ 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 

The crown of St. Stephen remained in the dynas- 
tic family of Arpad for three centuries. The kings 
of this dynasty erected, upon the foundations laid by 
the first great king of that house, the proud and en- 
during structure of the Hungarian Church and State. 
The liberty of the nation and the independence of the 
country were maintained by these rulers against the 
ever-recurring attacks of both the Eastern and West- 
ern empires, and the paternal meddling of the popes, 
as well as against the barbarians invading Europe 
from the East, whose devastations menaced the 
complete destruction of every thing that lay in their 
path. 

But while they repulsed with an ever-ready and 
strong arm all hostile attacks — from whatever quarter 
they might come — they willingly extended the right 
hand of friendship and hospitality to those who came 
to settle in the country with peaceful intentions, and 
brought with them the valued seeds of Western cul- 
ture. The Hungarians themselves could be but with 
difificulty weaned from their ancient customs, and 
they still continued to be the martial element of 
the country, inured to war and laying down their 

97 



9§ THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

lives on fields of battle ; but the populations which 
had emigrated from the West, protected by royal 
immunities, were the fathers of a busy and pros- 
perous city-life, and laid the foundations of civili- 
zation in Hungary. A few monumental memorials, 
spared by the hand of time, proclaim to this day 
the artistic taste and wealth of those remote cen- 
turies, and the scant words to be found in ancient 
and decayed parchments speak loudly, and with no 
uncertain sound, of the cities of that time as busy 
marts of industrial activity and thriving commerce. 
From the list of the annual revenues of one of the 
Arpads, Bela III., and those of the country in the 
twelfth century, which was submitted by him when 
asking for the hand of the daughter of the French 
kine, the civilized West learned with amazement of 
the enormous wealth of the king ruling near the 
eastern confines of the Western world. The king's 
wealth was but a reflex of the prosperity of the peo- 
pie. During the era of the Arpads Hungary sur- 
passed many a Western country in power and wealth, 
and in the work of civilization either kept pace with 
them or faithfully followed in their footsteps. These 
three hundred years produced great kings, who^ dis- 
tinguished by their abilities, character, and achieve- 
ments, made the country strong and flourishing ; 
but this era produced also weak and frivolous 
rulers, whose faults will forever darken their memory. 
Posterity, however, cherishes the memory of all with 
equal piety, and is accustomed to look at the entire 
period in the light of the lustre of the great kings 
only. No wonder, therefore, if the ancient chron- 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ART AD. 99 

iclers, in describing the events of that era, are led by 
their piety to weave into the text gorgeous tales and 
legends for the purpose of enhancing the glory of 
the great kings, and of palliating the shortcomings 
of those kings who were weak and frail. 

The history of those three centuries may be divid- 
ed into three periods. The first, comprising the first 
two centuries, may be called the heroic period of 
the young kingdom, in the course of which both the 
foreign and domestic foes were triumphantly re- 
sisted, the attacks of the neighboring nations re- 
pulsed, and the risings of paganism quelled. The 
second comprises the early part of the thirteenth 
century. During this period the royal power entered 
upon a state of decay, and was no longer able either 
to secure respect for the law or the execution of its 
behests. At this time too the nobility extorted 
from royalty a charter called the Golden Bull, con- 
firming their immunities. During the third period 
an oligarchy, recruited from the ranks of the nobility, 
rose to power, and became the scourge of the nation, 
defying the royal authority and trampling upon all 
law. The licentiousness of this class ruined the 
country, which was then very near becoming a prey 
of the Mongols, who made an unexpected invasion. 
The realm, however, was saved from utter destruc- 
tion by the devotion of one of her great kings and 
a happy conjuncture of circumstances. 

The misgivings which filled Stephen's soul when 
he closed his eyes in eternal sleep soon proved to 
have been well founded. Four years had hardly 
elapsed after his death when the armies of the Ger- 



TOO THE SrORY OF HUNGARY. 

man emperor were already marching on Hungary, 
and in another four years paganism arose in a for- 
midable rebellion, with the avowed purpose of de- 
stroying the new church and kingdom. 

Peter (1038-1046), Stephen's successor, who was 
of foreign descent and of a proud and frivolous na- 
ture, despised the rude and uncivilized Hungarians. 
He surrounded himself with foreigners, German and 
Italian immigrants, who divided amongst themselves 
the chief dignities of the State, preyed upon the 
prosperity of the country, and ruined the morals of 
the people. The nation did not tolerate his misrule 
very long. The fierce hatred and exasperation with 
which they looked at every thing foreign found its 
vent against Peter, whom they drove from the country 
and then elected in his place one of their own nation, 
Samuel Aba (1041-1044), the late king's brother-in- 
law. Peter did not renounce his lost power, but 
asked the help of the German emperor, which he 
readily obtained. The Emperor Henry HI. opened 
with his German troops the way to the forfeited 
throne, and Samuel Aba, who marched against him, 
having fallen on the battlefield, Peter for the second 
time had the crown of St. Stephen placed on his 
brow, but this time he took the oath of fealty to the 
German emperor. Thus did Hungary for the mo- 
ment become a vassal state of the German empire. 
But the vassalage was short, for hardly had the em- 
peror withdrawn from the country when the passion- 
ate wrath of the nation rose higher than ever against 
Peter. This time, however, the wrath was not alone 
against his person, but menaced destruction to every 



I02 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

thing opposed to the ancient order of things, and pro- 
duced a bitter contest against both Christianity and 
the royal dignity. Peter would have fain escaped now 
from his persecutors, but he was captured, thrown 
into prison, and deprived of his sight, and then, from 
the depth of his misery, he vainly bewailed the giddi- 
ness which had conjured up the storm of passions 
that had deprived him of his throne, his eyesight, 
and liberty. 

The leader of the pagan rebellion was Vatha. At 
his command firebrands were thrown into the 
churches and monasteries, the crosses were demol- 
ished, and every thing proclaiming the new faith was 
reduced to ruins; and by his advice ambassadors 
were sent to the dukes of the house of Arpad, who, 
after Stephen's death, had sought refuge in foreign 
countries, to summon them to return to the country 
and restore there the old order. King Andrew I. 
(1046-1061), to whom the supreme power had been 
offered, and who, during his exile in Russia, had 
married the daughter of the Prince of Kiev, imme- 
diately obeyed the summons, not, however to submit 
to the behests of paganism, but to rule in accordance 
with the principles and in the spirit of his illustrious 
kinsman. King Stephen. For a while, indeed, he 
was compelled to bear with the outbreaks, massacres, 
and devastations of paganism, but as soon as he felt 
secure in his new power, and especially after having 
taken up his residence in Stuhlweissenburg, then the 
capital of the country, where he was able to collect 
around him the Christian inhabitants of the West, 
who lived there in large numbers, he at once turned 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. IO3 

his arms against the pagan rebels. He dispersed 
their armies, captured their leaders, and crushed 
the rebellion with merciless severity. 

The double cross shone out again triumphantly, but 
the crown was still menaced by danger. After the de- 
feat of paganism the Emperor Henry Til. sent envoys 
to Andrew, asking satisfaction for the cruelties in- 
flicted upon Peter and calling upon the king to renew 
the oath of fealty to the emperor of Germany. An- 
drew felt that unless he maintained the independence 
of the country, and the dignity of the crown, he in- 
curred the risk of losing the throne itself. He therefore 
rejected Henry's claims and prepared for the defence 
of the country. At the same time he summoned 
home his brother Bela (Adalbert) who, during his 
exile in Poland, had won high distintction as a 
soldier, and had obtained, as a reward for his mili- 
tary services, the hand of a daughter of Miecislas. 
Andrew himself was in ill-health, and he did not 
care to face the brewing storm single-handed. He 
wanted to have at his side the powerful arm of his 
brave and mighty brother, whose very appearance 
was sufficient to inspire the distressed nation with 
confidence and hope. He gave Bela one third of 
the realm, and, being childless, promised him the 
crown after his decease. Neither Andrew nor the 
nation were disappointed in Duke Bela, who was 
believed by the people to be irresistible. It was in 
vain that Henry HI. collected the entire armed 
force of the empire, and three times in succession 
(1049-1052) threw this force upon Hungary. In 
each campaign Duke Bela succeeded in dealing deadly 



I04 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

blows Upon the invaders. His triumph was so com- 
plete that the emperor was compelled to solemnly 
proclaim peace, again acknowledging the indepen- 
dence of the kingdom. 

The nation was not permitted long to enjoy the 
peace following her almost miraculous escape. Do- 
mestic dissensions took the place of the dangers 
threatening from abroad, and this time the feuds 
did not originate with the people, but with the 
royal family itself. All the glory of the important 
results of the German wars, of the driving the enemy 
from the country, and of her happy escape from the 
besetting dangers, centred in the person of Duke 
Bela. The nation looked with love and admiration 
upon the knightly form of their favorite, and his 
popularity was so great that it 'quite overshadowed 
that of Andrew, notwithstanding all his kingly power. 
Andrew's feelings were deeply hurt by the popularity 
of his brother, nor could he help being terrified by 
it. But it was not his brother's popularity alone 
which troubled him. During the war a son had 
been born to Andrew, who was christened Solomon. 
Andrew now repented of his promise to Bela. He 
wished his infant son to succeed to the throne, and 
in order to insure it to him, he caused Solomon to 
be crowned in spite of his tender age. Not satisfied 
with this, but fearing that Bela, aggrieved by these 
proceedings, might rise against Solomon at some 
future time, he betrothed his little son to the 
daughter of the recently humbled emperor, in order 
to secure for Solomon the powerful aid of the Ger- 
man empire against Bela's attacks. Every move- 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 1 05 

ment of Andrew was dictated by fear, and he saw 
cause for trembling in every thing. What troubled 
him most was that B^la had never breathed a word 
about his griefs or wrongs. Andrew would often 
ask himself whether Bela was candid in his apparent 
indifference, or whether, under the cover of this calm 
repose, he was not concocting dangerous schemes 
against him and young Solomon. He determined to 
put Bela's candor to the proof. He had been ailing, 
and made his feeble condition a pretext for inviting 
his brother to the court. He received B^la with 
kindly words, confided to him his misgivings, ap- 
pealed to his generosity, and repeatedly assured him 
that he did not intend to defraud him of his rights 
by the acts done in favor of his son Solomon. An- 
drew concluded by saying that he left it to Bela to 
decide whether he would rather succeed to the 
throne after his own death, or be satisfied to remain 
at the side of young Solomon as the military chief 
of the nation and the protector of the realm. The 
old chronicles relate that Andrew, having finished 
his sweet speech, caused to be placed before Bela 
the royal crown and a sword, calling upon him to 
choose between the two. '' I take the sword," ex- 
claimed Bela, unable to conceal his indignation, 
''for if I c&veted the crown, I could always obtain 
it with the sword." 

The feud between the two brothers became hence- 
forth irreconcilable. The nation sided with Bela. 
The emperor spoken of before was dead, and a boy 
occupied the German throne. Andrew had sent his 
queen and young son some time before to the Ger- 



I06 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

man court, and now he marched against Bela, who 
was prepared to meet him. The two brothers con- 
fronted each other near the Theiss, and Andrew lost 
both the battle and his life, whilst Bela was on the 
field of battle proclaimed king of the realm. 

Bela and his family occupy a conspicuous place in 
the history of the first century of the Hungarian 
kingdom. He himself, two of his sons, and one of 
his grandsons were destined to successfully defend 
the country, to pacify the nation, and, pursuing the 
work of Stephen, to complete the creations of that 
great king. They were all endowed with eminent 
qualities befitting the great task allotted to them. 
The heroism, devotion, and wisdom of the father 
descended to the children, in whose character the 
inherited virtues shone out with even a brighter and 
purer light. They were zealous guardians of their 
kingdom and devout Christians, and they were 
wedded, heart and soul, to their nation, which 
beheld in its kings with feelings of delight the em- 
bodiment of its own best qualities. The imagination 
of the people soars towards them after the lapse of 
so many centuries, and loves to make their lofty 
forms the heroes of fabulous legends. Hence it is 
that the events recorded of them in the pages of the 
chronicles are nearly choked up by the ever-gorgeous 
poetical creations of the imagination of the people. 

The reign of Bela I. was short (1061-1063), but 
even during this brief period he succeeded in ren- 
dering important services to his country. While he 
was king paganism once more reared its crest under 
the lead of James, son of the Vatha who had been 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 10/ 

put to death during Andrew's reign. James stirred 
up the multitude against Christianity and royalty, 
but Bela nipped the rising in the bud. This last 
attempt of paganism having failed, its power was 
completely broken, and it finally lost entirely its 
hold upon the imagination and passions of the 
people. Some there were yet who continued to 
resort secretly to the sacred places in the groves, but 
their persecutors traced them even to these hallowed 
spots, until, at last, the sacred fire burning on the 
secretly elevated and visited altars was completely 
extinguished by the laws enacted under Kings Lad- 
islaus and Coloman. The imperial court of Germany 
made strenuous, efforts to place Solomon, whom it 
had received under its protection, upon the throne 
of St. Stephen. Armies were collected and marched 
against Hungary in the hope of being able at last 
to assert the imperial supremacy over the kingdom 
which had been hitherto so unsucces§fully pro- 
claimed. The nation shrank from young Solomon, 
who was badly brought up and frivolous, and in 
whom they saw only the tool of the German power. 
The voice of the people designated amongst Bela's 
chivalrous sons either the righteous Geyza or the 
brave and pure Ladislaus, as the princes best fitted 
for the crown. 

These generous princes, however, desiring to save 
their country from the^palamities of an attack by the 
Germans, abdicated their power in favor of young 
Solomon, and gave him a friendly reception on his 
ascending the throne, stipulating only this, that their 
cousin should leave them undisturbed in the posses- 



I08 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

sion of their paternal inheritance, which comprised 
about one third of the realm. Solomon (1063-1074) 
promised every thing and kept nothing. He was 
distrustful of his cousins, perceiving that the nation 
idolized them, and bowed down before him only 
from compulsion. It was in vain that his royal 
kinsmen supported him with an unselfishness al- 
most touching, and strove hard to lend him the 
lustre of their own popularity in order to obtain 
favor for him in the eyes of the nation. Solomon 
persisted in seeing in them his rivals, from whose 
grasp his crown Vv^as not safe, and not his brothers, 
the upholders and guardians of his royal power. The 
foreign advisers poisoned the mind of the wavering 
and fickle king against his young kinsmen, not be 
cause they doubted the unselfishness of their devo- 
tion, but because his civil counsellors well knew that 
the two brothers were sworn enemies of German ex- 
pansion and supremacy. The chronicles of the coun- 
try abound in praise of the heroic deeds performed 
by Solomon in conjunction with his cousins 
while he lived in harmony with them, and in ac- 
counts of the intrigues which disturbed that harmony, 
and finally led to their utter estrangement from each 
other. The foreign counsellors of Solomon succeeded 
in working upon his fears and jealousy to such an ex- 
tent that they finally prevailed upon the king to hire 
assassins to do away with E^ke Geyza. The trap 
was laid but the victim for whom it was destined 
succeeded in making his escape. The fe.ud of the 
fathers revived in their sons, and King Solomon 
and the dukes Geyza and Ladislaus confronted each 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ART AD. IO9 

other in the same hostile spirit in which their fathers, 
Andrew and Bela, had once stood face to face. The 
question which the sword was to decide was not 
merely whose should be the crown, but as to 
whether the German power should become the 
master of the Hungarian kingdom, or not. Fate 
decided against Solomon. He lost the battle of 
Mogyor6d, and with it his throne, and with his de- 
feat vanished all hopes of establishing German su- 
premacy over Hungary. 

The vacant throne was filled first by Geyza (1074- 
1077), and, after his short reign, by his brother Ladis- 
laus. Solomon escaped, and turned now to his impe- 
rial brother-in-law, Henry IV., now again to the 
adversary of the latter. Pope Gregory VH., for help, 
moving heaven and earth to regain his lost throne. 
It was all in vain, the mischief was done and could 
be remedied no more. The chroniclers delight in 
adorning the story of the erratic life and repentance 
of the unfortunate youth. They relate of him that, 
perceiving the utter failure of all his attempts, he 
was filled with loathing against himself and the blind 
passions which had made him the enemy and scourge 
of his country, retired from the world, and became a 
hermit in order to atone for the faults of his brief 
youth by doing penance during the remaining years 
of his life. A cave on the shores of the Adriatic, 
near Pola, is pointed out to this day, in which 
Solomon is supposed to have led the life of a her- 
mit. The chronicle adds that he lived to a high old 
age, became the benefactor of the inhabitants of the 
vicinity, prayed for his nation, and that the last wish 



no THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

of his departing soul was the happiness of his 
country. 

Ladislaus (i 077-1095), who succeeded his older 
brother Geyza, was one of the noblest, most note- 
worthy of the kings of the royal line of the Arpads. 
He was great not only in the light of the important 
achievements of his reign, but by his eminent per- 
sonal qualities. His character was a happy combina- 
tion of strength without violence, of wisdom without 
vacillation, of piety without fanaticism, and of lofty 
majesty without pride. He was the hero, the model, 
and the idol of his nation, which had never clung to 
any of its kings with more boundless affection, greater 
devotion, and more respect. He identified himself 
with the nation, drew strength from her affection for 
him, and rendered her powerful in return. He gave 
the kingdom, founded by his illustrious ancestor, a 
permanent peace, restored the faith in its strength, 
and insured its development. He put an end to the 
era of attacks from the West, and even intervened in 
the troubles of Germany by siding with the papal 
party against Henry IV. An ancient chronicler in- 
forms us that he had been offered the crown of Ger- 
many but refused to accept it, because '' he wished 
to be nothing but a Hungarian." Although he aided 
the popes in their contest with Germany, he yet de- 
fended the interests of the kingdom against papal 
pretensions. Pope Gregory VH. having reminded 
him that the Hungarian kings had obtained their 
crown from one of his predecessors, Sylvester H., 
and that it was fitting therefore that they should 
submit to the supremacy of the Pope, Ladislaus re- 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. Ill 

plied, in a letter sent to the Pope, that '' he was ready 
to obey with filial submission and with his whole 
heart the holy see, as an ecclesiastical power, and his 
holiness the Pope, as his spiritual father, but that he 
would not subordinate the independence of his realm 
to anybody or any thing." Nor did the king in his 
acts deviate from his professions, and the popes 
prized his alliance too highly to find it advisable 
to turn his friendship into enmity by forcing upon 
him their supremacy. 

Ladislaus was not satisfied to merely defend his 
people and country against hostile attacks ; he ex- 
erted himself to increase the population and to add 
to the territory. Under him Croatia was added to 
the kingdom (1089), and, having founded a bishop- 
ric at Agram, he spread the Christian faith 
amongst the Croatians and organized their church. 
About the same time, the Kuns (Cumans), having 
invaded the country from the East, Ladislaus routed 
them, and, making a great number of captives 
amongst them, he colonized with these prisoners the 
lowlands of the Theiss. Croatia is still a member of 
the realm of St. Stephen, and the Kuns have been 
entirely absorbed by the Hungarian element, sharing 
the weal and woe of the latter. History has pres- 
erved in the fragments of the laws enacted by him 
clear proofs of the greatness of Ladislaus in the 
affairs of peace ; a severe judge and wise leader, he 
defended with his sword the blessed seeds planted 
by him in time of peace. He compelled the people 
to settle down permanently, and taught them by 
severe penalties to respect the persons and property 



112 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

of others. He visited with severe punishment the 
followers of ancient paganism, and overwhelmed the 
Christian church with benefits. It was at his request 
that Stephen, his son Emeric, and the martyred 
bishop Gerhard, Duke Emeric's tutor, were canon- 
ized and placed upon the list of saints by the Church 
of Rome. We need not wonder, therefore, if, con- 
fronted with such grandeur and majesty, posterity 
abstained from applying to him human standards, 
and loved to see in his acts the manifestations of 
a higher and a divine power. Thus the chronicler 
speaking of him says with deep emotion : '' He was 
rich in love, abounding in patience, cheerful in his 
graciousness, overflowing in the gifts of grace, the 
promoter of justice, the patron ' of modesty, the 
guardian of the deserted, and the helper of the poor 
and distressed. Divine mercy raised him in the 
gifts of nature above the common worth of man, for 
he was brave, strong of arm, and pleasant to the 
sight ; his whole appearance was marked by leonine 
strength and majesy ; he was so tall of stature that 
his shoulders were visible above those about him, 
and, blessed with the fulness of divine gifts, his 
aspect proclaimed him to have been created to be a 
king." His mortal remains lie enshrined in the 
cathedral of Grosswardein (Nagyvarad), which was 
built by his munificence, and the piety of the nation 
has made of the place of his burial a miracle-working 
resort for devout pilgrims. A pious tradition has 
lived for centuries amongst the people, that when- 
ever danger menaces the country the king leaves his 
bed of stone and, followed by the invisible hosts of 



114 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

his departed braves, combats against the assailants 
of his country. 

Ladislaus was still living when the religious move- 
ment which took the form of a holy warfare began 
to agitate the west of Europe — a movement which 
was destined to maintain its hold upon the minds of 
the inhabitants of the western world for two hun- 
dred years. According to a tradition of the nation, 
Ladislaus was offered, as the most chivalrous king, 
the chief command over the western Knights and 
crusading armies, but was prevented by death from 
assuming the leadership. Most of the crusaders 
went eastward by the valley of the Danube, passing 
through Hungary, and the waves of the first expedi- 
tion reached the country during the reign of Colo- 
man (1095-1114), the successor of Ladislaus. It was 
fortunate for the country that a king like Coloman 
kept guard at this time over her frontiers ; a king who, 
although he may have lacked the ideal qualities of 
his predecessor, possessed both the strength and the 
courage to protect and defend the realm. Although 
he was well aware that his attitude would provoke 
the anger of the popes and place him in opposition 
to the public opinion of the whole Christian world, 
he was not deterred from mercilessly driving away 
from the borders of the country the first motley host 
of unruly and lawless crusaders that approached 
them. The only crusaders to whom he gave a 
friendly reception, permitting them to pass through 
the country, were the troops of Godfrey of Bouillon, 
but even as to these, he exacted the most rigorous 
security for their good behaviour. Coloman's firm- 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. II5 

ness alone saved the country from being engulfed 
by the movement, and prevented its domestic peace, 
which was not as yet firmly established, from being 
disturbed. 

But while he was thus guarding the interests of 
the country with a watchful eye, an unmoved heart, 
and a strong arm, he still found time and oppor- 
tunity for increasing the territory of the realm. He 
completed in Croatia the conquests begun by Ladis- 
laus, and added to the new acquisition Dalmatia, 
which he wrested from the grasp of the Venetian 
republic. Coloman was the first Hungarian king 
who styled himself King of Croatia and Dalmatia. 

Coloman won the admiration of his contem- 
poraries and posterity, not merely as a leader of 
armies, but as a ruler whose great erudition and wise 
laws served to perpetuate his memory. -These quali- 
ties obtained for him the epithet '' Kojiyves'" (bookish) 
or learned King Coloman. The chronicles extol him 
for putting a stop by process of law to the prosecu- 
tion of witches, and for declaring in one of his laws : 
" Of witches who do not exist at all no mention 
shall be made." He bestowed great care upon the 
administration of justice, and among his laws occurs 
the following admirable direction given to the judges : 
" Every thing must be so cautiously and anxiously 
weighed on the scale of justice, that innocence, on 
the one hand, shall not be condemned from hatred, 
and, on the other, sin shall not be protected through 
friendship." 

The last years of Coloman's reign were embittered 
by the ambition of his brother Almos, who coveted 



Il6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 

the throne. The energetic and erudite king, who 
had spent his whole Hfe in consoHdating the glorious 
work begun by Stephen, saw with a sorrowing heart 
how the restless ambition of single individuals was 
uprooting the plants he had so carefully nursed. 
Duke Almos rose three times in rebellion against his 
royal brother, nor did he reject, on these occasions, 
foreign aid. Coloman defeated him each time, and 
pardoned him each time. But seeing that the incor- 
rigible duke could not be restrained by either his 
power or his magnanimity, and that he was again 
collecting an army against him, Coloman caused 
Almos and his young son Bela to be thrown into 
prison, where both were deprived of their sight. 
This dark and cruel deed, the ferocity of which can 
be palliated only by the rudeness of the age, was 
Coloman's last act, and, in thinking of the retribu- 
tion of the life to come, it could not fail to disturb 
his peaceful descent into the grave. 

The risings of Almos initiated that period of civil 
strife which continued for two hundred years, until 
the house of the Arpads became extinct, and which, 
on the one hand, afforded the Greek emperors an 
opportunity to meddle with the affairs of the country, 
and to attempt the extension of their supremacy 
over the kingdom ; and, on the other hand, under- 
mined the authority of royalty, lifted the oligarchs 
into power, and sapped the foundations of the insti- 
tutions established by Stephen. 

Almos, the blinded duke, planned again a rising 
against Coloman's son and successor, Stephen II. 
(1114-1131), but the plot having been discovered he 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD, 11/ 

fled to the Greek court for protection and aid. The 
Hungarian and Greek armies were already confront- 
ing each other on the banks of the lower Danube, 
but the shedding of blood was prevented on this 
-occasion by the sudden death of Duke Almos. 

His son Bela H. (1131-1141), who had also been 
made blind, ascended the throne after the death of 
Stephen H., but he gave no thought to pacifying the 
restlessness of the people or to restoring peace to 
the country. One feeling alone held the mastery 
over his soul, shrouded in darkness — that of vindic- 
tiveness against those who had robbed him and his 
father of the light of day. His revengeful feelings 
were still more fanned by his masculine queen, Ilona, 
the daughter of the prince of Servia, by whose 
advice he summoned the diet to meet in Arad, on 
the southern confines of the country, for the sole 
purpose of avenging himself on this occasion. The 
lords, anticipating no evil, assembled in large 
numbers, although there were many among them 
who might have had good reasons for dreading 
the king's wrath. They came, however, confiding in 
the forgiveness of Bela, which had been publicly 
proclaimed by him. According to the information 
gleaned from the chronicles, the diet was opened by 
Queen Ilona herself, who, after describing in a pas- 
sionate strain the sad fate of her blinded husband, 
and inveighing against the crime of those who were 
the causers of his affliction, herself gave the signal for 
the awful work of vengeance. A dreadful struggle 
ensued between the adherents of the king and those 
who had been singled out by the court as victims. 



Il8 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

Many remained dead in the hall of the diet which 
had thus been changed into a battlefield, but many 
others, who succeeded in escaping, took away with 
their wounds feelings of undying hatred against 
their king. These bloody proceedings gave the dis- 
affected a fresh cause for placing their hopes in the 
Greek court, and expecting from that quarter relief 
from the tyranny which oppressed them. 

But when open hostilities finally broke out be- 
tween the two nations, Bela II. was no more among 
the living. When the war commenced, Geyza II. 
(1141-1161), the son of Bela, sat on the Hungarian 
throne, which the Emperor Manuel, the most power- 
ful of the Comneni, ruled in Constantinople. The 
war was a protracted one, and its scene was chiefly 
on the southern frontier, along the course of the 
Danube and the country near the Save, but Manuel, 
with all his power and wariness, was unable to obtain 
an advantage over the younger and more energetic 
neighbor. After the death of Geyza, his son Stephen 
III. succeeded to the throne. The Greek emperor 
refused to recognize him as the king of Hungary, 
and attempted to place upon the throne as his vas- 
sals, successively, the two brothers of Geyza who had 
found a refuge at his court, but he did not succeed 
with either of the pretenders. One of his proteges 
died young, while the other was driven from the 
country by the lawfully elected king, Stephen III. 

Manuel, seeing all his schemes overthrown, and 
perceiving that, as an enemy, he had utterly failed, 
pretended now to feelings of friendship, and offered 
peace to the Hungarians. As a further pledge of 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. II9 

peace he requested King Stephen III. to permit 
his brother Bela to reside with him at Constanti- 
nople, promising that he would adopt him as his 
son and heir. Manuel, having no sons to whom 
he might leave the imperial throne, in all proba- 
bility secretly cherished the hope that his adopted 
son would at some future day succeed to the Greek 
throne, and would also inherit the crown of St. 
Stephen, and that by this means the two neigh- 
boring countries, which he did not succeed in unit- 
ing by force of arms, would, in the course of time, 
become one. Fate, however, seemed to have con- 
spired to frustrate the best laid plans of the Greek 
emperor. He carried Duke Bela with him to Con- 
stantinople, adopted him as his son, declared him 
his heir, and every thing appeared to point to a 
happy realization of his ambitious dreams, when un- 
expectedly a son was born to him, an event which 
completely upset his calculations. It became now 
impossible for Manuel to continue to keep the young 
Hungarian duke at his court, unless, indeed, he wanted 
to raise a rival to his own son ; he, therefore, deprived 
him of all the distinctions he had heaped upon him, 
and sent him hurriedly back to his native country, 
where the throne had just become vacant by the 
death of Stephen HI. Manuel, however, made the 
young duke take a solemn oath before he allowed 
him to depart that he would never attack the Greek 
empire, and this empty formality was all that he was 
able to achieve in furtherance of his scheme to im- 
pose his supremacy upon Hungary. The same duke, 
however, who had been nurtured in the culture of 



I20 THE STORY OF HUNGARY: 

Greece, and became King of Hungary as Bela III., 
completely banished Greek influence from the coun- 
try, and secured its independence for a long time to 
come. 

Bela III. (1173-1196) was one of the most power- 
ful and respected rulers of Hungary. He possessed 
great kingly qualities, and his character commanded 
universal respect. He had a great deal to contend 
with, after his return from Constantinople, before he 
succeeded in being firmly seated on his throne. He 
was received with feelings of suspicion by the power- 
ful nobility, the chief dignitaries of the church, and 
by the queen-mother herself, who all looked upon 
him as a partisan of the eastern despotism, and as an 
enemy to the Roman Catholic Church, and who 
were anxious to place his brother Geyza upon the 
throne. Bela triumphed before long over all his 
enemies. He had his brother thrown into prison, 
sent his mother into exile, restrained and humiliated 
the powerful oligarchs, and conciliated the friendship 
of the high prelacy by his munificence and liberality 
towards the church of the country. Having restored 
order at home, he devoted himself to the task of ob- 
taining again possession of the territory Manuel had 
seized. The reconquering of the Dalmatian sea- 
shore involved him in a war with Venice, the envious 
rival of the Hungarian kingdom, in the course of 
which Bela had occasion to give proof of his military 
power on a new scene of action, where the valor of 
his ancestors had never had an opportunity of shin- 
ing, by achieving over the proud republic a great 
triumph on the sea. Bela had learned a great deal 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 121 

at the Greek court, but all his valuable acquirements 
he employed for the advantage of his country. He 
did not exactly open new avenues for the development 
of the nation ; his chief merit consisted rather in lead- 
ing her back to the road marked out by Stephen, 
and successfully pursued by King Ladislaus and 
King Coloman. His every effort tended to bring 
the nation closer to that western civilization which 
had fostered her tender beginnings, and the rejection 
of which all this time would have amounted to a 
stultification of her past, and a certain risk of her 
future. Two things, however, were of paramount 
necessity to enable the people to prosper by the 
king's judicious exertions in this direction : to re- 
store to the country the needful rest she had not now 
enjoyed for half a century, and to reestablish order 
within the kingdom, torn by the partisanship of the 
last fifty years. Bela resolutely set to the task of 
establishing peace and order. He relentlessly pur- 
sued the thieves and robbers who rendered life arid 
property insecure and had increased to a frightful 
extent since Coloman's time, and, in order to do it 
more effectually, he appointed special officers in 
every county for that purpose, establishing, at the 
same time, a royal chancery at the court with a view 
to giving greater effect to the government of the 
country and the administration of justice. The 
proceedings in important affairs of state or private 
law-suits taken before the king — which hitherto had 
been oral — now had to be carried on in writing. 
The country, under Bela's well-ordered government, 
became more prosperous, and the nation more 



122 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

polished. Bela's first wife was a Greek princess, 
and his second a French princess. Both the queens, 
with the retinues following them to the court, intro- 
duced there the good taste, culture, and manners of 
the Greeks and French, so that a German chronicler 
happening to visit the court at that time, could not 
find adequate words to extol its magnificent splen- 
dors. Culture was not confined to the court ; it 
spread to the nation itself, for we find that the uni- 
versity, recently established in Paris, was attended 
by a number of Hungarian youths. All the acts of 
Bela indicate that he had selected for his model in 
government one of his most distinguished ancestors, 
Ladislaus, for whom, as an expression of his own 
and the nation's piety, he had also, in 1192, secured 
a place on the list of saints recognized by the Church 
of Rome. 

Bela, while thus advancing the interests of the 
kingdom and the nation, did not lose sight of the 
claims of the age upon kings and rulers to support 
the holy wars waged by Christendom against the in- 
fidels. He followed with sympathy the movements 
of the crusaders, and upon Jerusalem's falling into 
the hands of the infidels in 1187, he planned himself 
to lead an army for the purpose of reconquering the 
holy city. The third crusade was begun in 1 189, and 
the German forces, under the lead of the emperor, 
Frederic Barbarossa, passed on their way to the 
Holy Land through Hungary. Bela received his 
distinguished guest with royal pomp, abundantly 
provided the German troops with every thing neces- 
sary, but he himself did not join the crusaders. 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 1 23 

What the circumstances were that prevented the 
king from taking part in the crusades it would be 
difficult now to determine, but that they must have 
been weighty ones is amply proved by the fact that 
he had been long preparing for a crusading campaign 
and had for that purpose collected a great deal of 
treasure. The idea was present before his mind at the 
time of his death, for he directed that his elder son, 
Emeric, should succeed him on the throne, and the 
younger, Duke Andrew, should inherit the treasure 
collected for the pious object, and employ it in the 
carrying out of the paternal intentions. Bela's fate 
had that in common with the fate of the most con- 
spicuous kings of Hungary — that posterity praised 
his grand achievements, while his own children 
failed to respect and preserve the inheritance left to 
them by a distinguished sire. 

The feud between the two brothers broke out 
immediately after the death of Bela III. Andrew 
collected troops for the pretended purpose of exe- 
cuting the last will of his father, but in reality to 
employ them against his own brother. He succeeded 
in defeating the army of King Emeric, who was 
taken unawares, and was, besides, vacillating and in- 
capable, and, after occupying Croatia and Dalmatia, 
to which he added fresh territory, he proclaimed 
himself, in 1198, Duke of Croatia, Dalmatia, Rama, 
and Chulmia (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Emeric 
vainly urged Innocent III., the most powerful pope 
since Gregory VII., to compel the rebelHous duke 
to carry out the pious vows of his father. Andrew 
did not stir one step towards the Holy Land, but, 



124 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

persevering in his sinful perverseness, continued to 
repeat his attacks against the lawful king. At last, 
during one of his outbreaks, he was overtaken by 
an avenging Nemesis. 

The armies of the two brothers confronted each 
other on the banks of the Drave. The camp of 
Andrew was stirring with a strong and numerous 
army which, in anticipation of a certain victory, was 
loudly revelling and making merry. King Emeric's 
eyes sadly surveyed his own scant following, whose 
devotion and determination, great as they were, did 
not seem sufficient to make up for the deficiency in 
numbers. The collision between the opposing armies 
was inevitable, and the king felt that his utter dis- 
comfiture would be the result of the battle. His 
desperate condition inspired him with a sudden 
resolution, and, without communicating his intention 
to any one, he went into the enemy's camxp, dressed 
in kingly state, and, sceptre in hand, made straight 
for his brother's tent. The revelling warriors, in 
surprise, were struck with awe at the marvellous 
spectacle suddenly bursting in upon their dazed eyes. 
'' I wish to see the man who will dare to raise a sin- 
ful arm against his king and master," were the magic 
words which opened him the way through the gaping 
multitude. Upon arriving in his brother's tent he 
seized the rebellious duke's hands and led him 
captive to his own camp. The above narrative of 
the event, as gleaned from the chronicles, may not 
agree in every particular with the actual occurrence, 
but Duke Andrew became the king's prisoner, and 
remained captive until the latter called him to his 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 12$ 

deathbed, generously confiding to his care, his infant 
son, Ladislaus, who had already been crowned king. 

Andrew proved as faithless a guardian as he had 
been a false brother. He could not restrain his am- 
bition, but deprived Ladislaus of his crown, and 
drove him and his mother from the court. Shortly 
afterwards, the unhappy youth died, and Andrew 
could, at last, in 1205, ascend the throne he had so 
long coveted, and whose possession he had at- 
tempted to achieve by means in the choice of which 
he never consulted his conscience. 

The reign of Andrew II. (i 205-1235) deserves a 
conspicuous place in the history of Hungary, not for 
its beneficence, but for its weakness and shortcom- 
ings. The never-ending civil wars of the last century, 
especially the internecine struggle between the two 
brothers, had the effect of weakening the kingdom, 
lowering the royal power and authority, and, as a 
consequence of the decay of the latter, of increasing 
the overbearing spirit of the oligarchs. Andrew II. 
could not escape the condign punishment brought 
upon himself by his own acts. His whole reign 
was a series of feeble attempts to free himself from 
the entangling web caused by his own faults and 
the licentiousness of the oligarchy. He presented 
the spectacle of a man whose ambition was greater 
than his abilities, and whose levity equalled his 
ambition. In the beginning of his reign he was 
completely under the influence of his wife, Gertrude, 
who was of Tyrolese descent, and who suffered the 
country to become a prey to her foreign relations 
and favorites. Yet when the great and powerful 



126 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

lords rose against the plundering foreigners, the 
licentious court, and the tyrannical and wicked 
queen, killing the latter in her own palace, Andrew 
had neither the courage nor the power to exert his 
royal authority against the rebels, but was rather 
glad that the storm had passed over his head and 
had not singled him out for its victim. Instead of re- 
senting the injury done to him, he conciliated his 
enemies by presents and gifts, and indulged in 
schemes of a new matrimonial alliance. " He was 
fond of pomp, splendor, generous expenditure, and 
the ostentatious display of the court, but the royal 
revenues soon proved inadequate to pay the sums 
thus squandered, reduced as the royal domains had 
been by grants of entire counties. The king, in 
order to raise the revenues, mortgaged the imposts 
and tolls, and, by debasing the coinage, dishonestly 
added to his resources. The din of the revels of 
the court prevented the loud complaints of the 
people, who were oppressed and worried in a thou- 
sand ways by the oligarchs and the tax- and toll- 
gatherers, from reaching the ears of the king. At 
times his restlessness and ambition still involved 
him in adventurous enterprises. Thus he wished 
to elevate his son, Duke Bela, to the throne of 
Galicia, but lacked the strength to accomplish his 
scheme. The campaign against Galicia only added 
to the expenditures of the country, and, indeed, it 
happened that the king with his son and the whole 
army were in the most imminent danger of destruc- 
tion. His mind was also disturbed by his failure to 
carry out the wishes of his father, and, at last, he 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ART AD. 12/ 

determined, in 12 17, to march an army to the Holy 
Land. In order to raise the money necessary for the 
campaign he plundered the churches and monas- 
teries, and sold to Venice the city of Zara, the bul- 
wark of the Dalmatian seashore. He finally left the 
country with the army thus collected, but while he 
was roaming about in the Holy Land without aim or 
purpose, the orphaned country was reduced to the 
brink of misery. ''When we returned home from 
our expedition," complained the king himself, in a 
letter addressed to the holy see, *' we found that 
both the clergy and the laymen had been guilty of 
wickedness such as surpasses all imagination. All 
.the treasure of the country we found squandered, 
and fifteen years will not suffice to restore our land 
to her former better condition." The condition of 
the country must have been sad, indeed, if the state 
the king had left her in might be called good in com- 
parison with it, and however heavily the responsi- 
bility of the fresh calamities rested upon the king, 
his truthfulness in this instance cannot be doubted. 
The gloomy rule of Andrew H. was relieved by 
one cheering event which contained the germ of a 
better future. The gentry, comprising in its ranks 
the largest part of the freeholders of the country, 
unable to bear longer the weak government of the 
king, the violence of the oligarchy, and the scourge 
of the army of extortionate gatherers of taxes and 
tolls, at last lifted their heads and asked the throne 
to listen to their complaints and to remedy their 
wrongs. Bela himself, the king's son, whom Andrew 
n. had caused to be crowned before going to the 



128 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

Holy Land, was the leader and spokesman of the 
nobility, who had stood up in defence of the sacred- 
ness of the constitution, and who now urged the 
return to the rule of law in the land. 

Their wrongs, and the remedies exacted by the 
gentry were set forth in the following strain : The 
king should not, at the expense of the patriots, be- 
stow favors upon foreigners, nor elevate them to 
dignities, and distribute among them the domains 
of the country; entire counties or dignities of state 
should not, as a practice, be granted in pepetuity, 
and he should not suffer avaricious nobles to grasp a 
greater number of offices than they could efficiently 
administer. He should guard the ancient immuni- 
ties of the nobles, so that they might freely dispose 
of their property, and not be molested in their per- 
sons without lawful judgment, and should not be 
burdened with taxes or extortionate exactions of 
any kind. He should take care that the tax- and 
toll-gatherers and other officials be taken from the 
ranks of the gentry, and should remove from his ser- 
vice the Ishmaelites and the Jews. Every thing op- 
posed to these requirements he should at once bring 
to an end. The county estates, granted away to the 
injury of the land or dishonestly obtained, should be 
taken back by the king, and he should, in pursuance 
of the ancient custom of the country, every year, on 
St. Stephen's day, convoke the diet, whose duty it 
was to act upon the complaints of the nation and to 
defend her liberty when attacked. 

The king, however, moved neither by the voice of 
truth, nor by the misery of his people, refused to ac- 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 1 29 

cede to these requests. In the breast of Andrew 11. , 
who, during his whole reign, had utterly neglected 
the duties coupled with his exalted station, awoke 
on the present occasion a feeling of injured royal 
dignity. But the gentry were determined to enforce 
their demands, and, gathering around the heir to the 
throne, they took up arms in order to obtain by force 
the concessions they deemed necessary for the good 
of the country. Father and son with their armies 
were already confronting each other, when the chief 
prelates interfered, and prevailed upon Andrew to 
listen to the wishes of the gentry. The concessions 
were drawn up in form of a royal letter and the king 
bound himself and his successors by oath to observe 
the stipulations contained in it. Posterity has given 
this royal letter the name of the Golden Bull, owing 
to the fact that the seal appended to it by a silk 
string rests in a box made of gold. 

This remarkable document, which terminated the 
internal strife extending over a period of a hundred 
years, and to which for six centuries the past genera- 
tions of Hungary were in the habit of proudly refer- 
ring as the foundation of the constitution of the Hun- 
garian nobility, reads, omitting passages of minor 
importance, as follows : 

" In the name of the Holy Trinity and of the indivisible Unity, 
Andrew, by the grace of Godj- hereditary king of Hungary, Dalmatia, 
Croatia, Rama, Servia, and Galicia : Whereas the nobles and others 
in our realm have suffered detriment in many parts of their liberties, 
as established by King St. Stephen, through the power of some kings 
— who, either from anger revenged themselves, or listened to the 
counsels of wicked advisers, or sought their own advantage, — and our 
nobles have frequently appealed to our Majesty's and our ancestors' 



130 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

ears with petitions and complaints concerning the amelioration of our 
land — we, therefore, as in duty bound, desirous of satisfying their 
request, grant to them as well as to the other inhabitants of our realm 
the liberty granted by the sacred king, and we further ordain other 
matters pertaining to the improvement of the land in this wise : We 
ordain that we are bound annually to celebrate the day of the sacred 
king at Stuhlweissenburg and that, if we should be prevented from 
being present, the palatine shall be there in our place and shall hear 
the causes as our representative, and all the nobles may freely assem- 
ble there according to their pleasure. It is also our will, that neither 
we nor our successors shall detain or oppress the nobles on account 
of any powerful person, unless they be first summoned and sen- 
tenced by due process of law. Further we shall not cause taxes" to 
be collected on the estates of the nobles or of the clergy of the Church. 
If a noble shall die without male issue his daughter shall be entitled 
to one fourth of his property ; as to the rest he may dispose of it as 
he pleases, and if death should intervene before his doing so it shall de- 
scend to his nearer relatives, and if he is absolutely without kin then 
the inheritance shall go to the king. If the king is desirous of taking 
troops out of the country the nobles shall not be bound to go with him 
unless at his expense ; if, however, an army should invade the coun- 
try all the nobles are bound to go. The palatine shall be judge over 
all the people of our realm without distinction ; but in capital cases 
and matters of property which concern the nobles the palatine shall 
not decide without the king's knowledge. If foreigners come to the 
country they shall not be elevated to dignities without the consent 
of the council of the realm ; land shall not be given to those who 
are strangers to the realm. The king shall not grant entire counties 
or offices of any kind in perpetuity. Ofhcers of the treasury, salt 
bureaux, and customs must be nobles of our realm ; Ishmaelites and 
Jews shall be incapable of holding such ofhces. Excepting these four 
great lords, the palatine, the banus, the court judges of the king and 
queen, no one shall have two dignities at the same time. Should, 
how&ver, we, or any of our successors, at any lime be disposed to 
infringe upon any of these our orders, the bishops as well as the 
other lords and the nobles of the realm, shall be at liberty, jointly 
or singly, by virture of this letter, to oppose and contradict us and 
our successors, forever, without incurring the penalty of treason. 
Given by the hand of Kletus, the chancellor of our court, in the 
year of grace one thousand two hundred and twenty-two." 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. I3I 

King Andrew, who had to be compelled by force 
to issue the Golden Bull, could, however, not be 
coerced by any power to observe the promises he 
had made therein. The exertions of the heir pre- 
sumptive and the nobility as well as the wrath of the 
pope were of no avail. Nine years later he con- 
firmed its contents by a fresh oath, but hardly two 
years elapsed when he incurred the curse of Rome 
for again disregarding his oath. Struggles, extend- 
ing over many centuries, were necessary to realize 
the words of the Golden Bull. Time had then 
already effaced the memory of Andrew's follies and 
frailties, and posterity saw him only in the reflected 
light of the great concessions made by his royal 
missive. The estates of the diet which met at 
Rakos in 1505 spoke of him in terms of extravagant 
praise as the king '' who had made the Hungarians 
great and glorious, and had raised their fame to the 
very stars." 

The struggles which resulted in the issuing of the 
Golden Bull were by no me'ans over. The nobility 
had obtained from royalty the concession of their 
rights, but were lacking the power to maintain them, 
and to secure their permanency. The very charter 
of their liberties furnished matter for fresh disputes 
and dissensions. In these contests, however, the 
nobility now seldom attacked royalty, the weaken- 
ing of which would have proved injurious to their 
own interests, but they usually allied themselves 
with the kings against the oligarchs, who treated 
with contempt both law and right, having no need 
of the protection of either, and who indulged in 



132 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

tyrannical violence against the throne as well as the 
nation. The licentiousness and increasing power of 
the oligarchs were the sore spot in the body politic 
during the period of the last Arpads, and in a greater 
and lesser degree, now apparently healed, now more 
envenomed than ever, it continued to be for cen- 
turies a disturbing element in the public life of the 
country. 

The struggle between royalty, supported by the 
nation, and the unruly great lords had just com- 
menced, when the storm of the Mongol invasion 
broke loose upon the country, shaking it to its very 
foundations. When the storm subsided only the 
weak ones were found to have suffered, the strong 
ones came out of the nation's calamity more power- 
ful than ever. The national misfortunes only served 
to advance the interests of the oligarchs, who, about 
this time, began more frequently to surround the 
crests of the mountains with stone walls, and, dwell- 
ing in their rocky nests, defied royalty with increas- 
ing boldness, and oppressed the people with greater 
impunity than ever. The chroniclers in recalling 
this period mourn with bitter wailing the gloom 
which had settled upon the country, the incapacity 
of the kings, the pride and violence of the lords, and 
the miserable condition of the people. That the 
power of the nation was not entirely gone, however, 
was shown by the cheering fact, casting a ray of 
light into the gloom of those days, that at the very 
time when the authority of royalty had sunk to the 
lowest ebb, the Hungarian arms were able to cope 
with the powerful Slavic empire ruled by Ottokar, 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF A READ. 1 33 

king of Bohemia, and to assist in establishing the 
power of the Hapsburgs. Unfortunately the national 
strength was for the most part divided against itself,^ 
and the very triumph of the Hungarian arms against 
Ottokar proved injurious to the nation at large, for 
it redounded only to the glory of the oligarchy, and 
tended to confirm their power. 

After the death of Andrew 11. , his son, Bela IV. 
(1235-1270), devoted himself with youthful energy 
to the task of restoring the ascendancy of the royal 
power and authority, of insuring respect to the laws, 
and of humbling the pride of the oligarchy. He re- 
moved the evil counsellors of his father, sent the 
principal ringleaders to prison, surrounded himself 
with good patriots, and where gentle words proved 
inefficacious he resorted to arms in order to obtain 
possession of the royal domains and county lands 
which single oligarchs had contrived to acquire by 
grant during his father's life or from his ancestors, 
or which had been lawlessly appropriated by them. 
The efforts made by the youthful king were, how- 
ever, of no avail. The very successes which attend- 
ed here and there his policy served only to excite to 
a higher pitch the anger and resentment of the great 
lords, and deepened the estrangement between them 
and the throne. The disaffected oligarchs, whose 
selfishness was not tempered by patriotism, and 
whose passions did not know the bridle of the law, 
were so base as to elevate a foreign prince, Duke 
Frederic of Austria, to the throne, in opposition 
to their lawful king. The watchfulness of Bela 
alone prevented the royal inheritance from passing. 



134 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

at that time already, from the Arpads into foreign 
hands. Bela succeeded in driving back Frederic, 
,and in defeating the treasonable schemes of the oli- 
garchy, but he became, at the same time, convinced 
that until he was able to present to the opposing 
lords a more formidable front he would have to re- 
nounce the realization of the fond hopes of his 
youth. 

Bela looked about him for fresh resources to 
strengthen his authority and to add to his power. 
Pious Dominican monks, just then returning to the 
country from the regions of the Volga, told the tale 
that in the far east, along the banks of that river, 
they met with that fraction of the Hungarians who, 
during the period preceding the occupation of Hun- 
gary, had parted from their brethren near the Black 
Sea, where the latter continued their march west- 
ward. These accounts suggested to Bela the scheme 
of inviting the distant Eastern brothers to settle in 
his realm, hoping to augment the royal power by the 
aid of the new settlers, and to be thus enabled to 
resume successfully his contest with the proud lords. 
This scheme, however, failed, but the same circum- 
stances v/hich frustrated his plans as to his country- 
men near the Volga, assisted him in obtaining aid 
from another quarter. The Mongol hordes, which 
came rushing from Central Asia toward the western 
world, swept in their impetuous onward march the 
Hungarians near the Volga out of existance ; but the 
same wild current drove also the Kuns (Cumans) out 
of their habitations near the Black Sea, and the latter, 
after having roamed about homeless for a time, and 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 1 35 

then reached the frontiers of Hungary, begged of 
King Bela to allow them to come into the country and 
to settle there. Forty thousand families were in search, 
of a new country, and forty thousand fierce warriors 
offered their services to King Bela. The people of 
Hungary were averse to receiving immigration on so 
large a scale, and the great lords loudly protested 
against the reception of the new comers, being con- 
vinced that the latter would only enhance the king's 
power, and become instrumental in humbling their 
order. The king, however, considering the good 
of the country only, braved the opposition, and ad- 
mitting Kuthen, king of the Kuns, with his people, 
into the land, assigned to them as their future abode 
the plain of the Theiss. Nor did he forget to make 
their conversion to Christianity a condition of their 
admission. The good effects Bela had anticipated 
from his new colony were slow in showing them- 
selves, but the evil consequences of the recent set- 
tlement became manifest at once. The great num- 
bers of this rude and barbarous element, who were as . 
little disposed to live in fixed habitations as to em- 
brace Christianity, soon disgusted the people by 
their lawlessness, violence, unruliness, and the de- 
vastations committed by them amongst the Hun- 
garian population. The complaints of all classes, 
without distinction, which reached the king's ear. 
became daily louder. Bela was unable to come to 
the relief of the people, for to have turned against 
the Kuns, as he was asked to do, would have shaken 
them in their fidelity to him. But by showing a 
preference for the new comers he also forfeited the 



136 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

affection of his old adherents, the good patriots who 
had firmly stood by him, hitherto, in all his troubles. 
Dissensions arose between the king, who was ani- 
mated by the purest intentions, and his people, who 
were unable to fathom the patriotic motives of his 
actions ; and they were at their highest when the 
hurricane which had swept away the Hungarians on 
the banks of the Volga, and driven the Kuns to the 
plains of the Theiss, reached at last the crests of the 
Carpathian mountains. 

The successors of Jenghis Khan, wishing to ex- 
tend the frontiers of their vast Asiatic empire toward 
the west, crossed the Volga, overran the Russian 
steppes, and reduced Moscow to ashes in 1238. 
Proud and beautiful Kiev was soon after, in 1240, 
humbled by their victorious arms. The Hungarians 
were aware of the approach of the formidable foe, 
but their internal dissensions, and their troubles 
with the Kuns and with their king, made them 
forget the imminence of the danger that menaced 
them. They indulged, besides, in the hope that 
the mighty Carpathian mountains would arrest the 
fierce current in its onward course. But the nation 
was soon roused from its fancied security and awoke 
to a dread sense of the true situation. The mourn- 
ful fate of Kiev, the sufferings of the Polish people, 
and the threatening language of the embassy sent by 
Batu Khan, the general of Oktai, the Great Khan, 
who had been the terror of the Russians, dispelled 
the illusions of the most sanguine. 

The mind of King;; Bela was beset with anxious 
thoughts, but his courage did not fail him. Although 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ART AD. 1 3/ 

it was rather late for efficient military preparations, 
he labored day and night to put the country into a 
state of defence against the coming peril. He 
demolished the forests, and barricaded with the 
timber thus obtained the Carpathian passes. He in- 
vited his adherents to take counsel with him, and 
called to arms the ecclesiastical and lay lords, the 
soldiery of the counties, and every man in the coun- 
try capable of bearing arms. According to ancient 
custom he caused the bloody sword to be carried 
about throughout the land. His active zeal was not 
confined to his realm alone, but, sending his ambas- 
sadors to the western courts, he instructed them to 
beg, admonish, and urge the rulers of the West, in 
the name of Christianity, to come to his aid. It was 
all in vain. The foreign courts did not stir, and the 
Hungarian lords, in their surprise and dismay, instead 
of devising means to meet the danger, were wildly 
looking about them for some one to be made respon- 
sible for the coming peril, and to serve as a victim 
of their anger. They turned with passionate hatred 
upon the king and the Kuns, saying that he with his 
Kuns should defend the country, and that the king 
need not count upon them in this emergency. The 
spring of 1241 was already nearing, and still the 
royal banner, floating over Pesth, proclaimed to the 
world the absence of troops and the defencelessness 
of the country. The Mongolian armies had, mean- 
while, already begun to press forward. Their right 
wing marched on Poland and Silesia, in order to 
effect an entrance into the country from the north- 
west ; the left wing, passing through Moldavia, ap- 



138 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

proached the snowy mountains of Transylvania ; 
whilst the army of the centre was led by Batu Khan 
himself across the northwestern Carpathians to the 
pass of Bereczke. Thus the two arms of the Mongol 
armies were preparing to crush, in a deadly embrace, 
the doomed country. 

Batu Khan crossed the Carpathians on the 12th of 
March, 1241, and, having dispersed the troops of 
•Palatine Hedervary, at the foot of the mountains, 
the active Mongol cavalry troops overran with such 
suddenness the plain watered by the Theiss, that 
four days later the smoke of the burning villages, set 
on fire by the ruthless enemy, could be discerned 
from the walls of Pesth. The Hungarian lords, even 
at this critical moment, failed to arrive with their 
contingents, and those who were under arms near 
Pesth nursed their wrath, not against the enemy, 
but against the hated Kun immigrants whom they 
denounced as the spies and allies of the Mongols, 
and as traitors .to Hungary. They rushed upon 
the unsuspecting Kuns with savage rage, massacring 
their king, Kuthen, together with his household, at 
his quarters in Pesth. The Kuns, incensed at this 
treachery, were not slow to retaliate. One portion 
of them left the country, killing, burning, and devas- 
tating every thing before them, whilst the other 
joined the Mongols in order to avenge more thor- 
oughly their unjust persecution. 

Towards the latter end of March, Bela, inspired by 
despair rather than by any hope of success, led the 
royal army which had gathered around Pesth, and 
numbered altogether from 50,000 to 60,000 warriors, 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 1 39 

against the Mongols. This scanty force was all that 
the Hungarian nation, shorn of its valor and sadly- 
wanting in public spirit, opposed to the invading 
enemy.' The Mongol army retreated before Bela as 
far as the Theiss, and there Batu Khan, falling back 
with both wings of his army, pitched his camp in 
the angle formed by the Sajo and the Theiss. King 
Bela was intent upon reaching the same point, and 
placed his forces on the plain extending along the 
right bank of the Sajo, opposite the Mongol camp. 
Here on the plain of Muhi took place the dreadful 
conflict between the two armies. From the dawn 
of day to late in the night lasted the bloody engage- 
ment which ended with the complete annihilation of 
the Hungarian army. On the fated battle-field per- 
ished the chief prelates of the church, the highest 
dignitaries of the state taken from the ranks of the 
best patriots, thousands of the gentry, and the hope 
and last prop of the nation, her only army. Only 
few amongst those who did not fall amidst the shock 
of battle could escape with their lives. The pursu- 
ing enemy was everywhere close upon the track of 
the fugitives. " During a march of two days," says 
Rogerius, a contemporary writer, who had been an 
eye-witness of these horrors, *' thou couldst see 
nothing along the roads but fallen warriors. Their 
dead bodies were lying about like stones in a 
quarry." 

Yet, amidst all these misfortunes, there was one 
gleam of comfort in store for the nation. Every 
thing, indeed, was lost, but her king was saved, and 
whilst he lived the nation still kept up her hopes and 



I40 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

faith in a better future. A few devoted followers 
had rescued Bela from the perils of the bloody en- 
gagement near the banks of the Sajo, and the fugi- 
tive king, wandering for a while amidst the moun- 
tains of Upper Hungary, finally arrived at the court 
of Frederic, Duke of Austria, to whom he had pre- 
viously sent his family and royal treasures. Here, 
however, instead of meeting with hospitality, he was 
made prisoner, and succeeded in regaining his free- 
dom only by abandoning to his avaricious neighbor, 
who turned Bela's misfortunes to his profit, his 
treasures, his crown, and the possession of three 
counties. Bela then sent his family to the Dalma- 
tian sea-shore, whilst he himself hurried back to his 
unfortunate land, to the region near the Drave, in 
order to save what could yet be saved. The Danube 
alone interfered with the further advance of the 
Mongols. Two thirds of the realm had already 
fallen a prey to the fierce rage, greed, and brutal 
passions of the enemy. Whilst the Mongol Khan 
was dividing one half of the country, as conquered 
territory, into hundredths and tenths, and the people, 
lured from their hiding-places, lowered their necks, 
terror-stricken under the new yoke, Bela collected 
anew an army in the western part of the realm, and 
despatched ambassadors to the rulers of the western 
states. But before he could yet see the results of 
his renewed exertions, the severity of the winter, by 
covering the Danube with ice, afforded the Mongols 
an opportunity to penetrate into the western half of 
the country. The places which guarded the most 
sacred memorials of Hungarian royalty and Christi- 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. I4I 

anity, became a mass of smouldering ruins. The 
waves of the Mongolian inundation closed now 
upon the entire land. Bela was again compelled to 
seek safety in flight, and, mistrusting the continent, 
he sought a refuge near the sea. He retired, to- 
gether with his family, first to Spalato, and subse- 
quently to his fortified castle Trau, which was de- 
fended on almost every side by the sea. But his 
pursuers, who seemed to look upon their victories as 
incomplete as long as the king was not in their 
power, were on his track even there, and, devastat- 
ing the sea-shore, as far as Ragusa, they, at last, 
desperate with rage, laid siege to Trau. 

The last hopes of the nation had centred upon the 
sea-fortresS) and now these hopes, too, seemed to 
vanish, when suddenly, as by a miracle, the besiegers 
ceased their hostilities, folded up their tents, and 
departed for the East. At the command of Batu 
Khan the whole Mongolian army, with all their fol- 
lowers, left the razed country, the flood of the inva- 
ders receding to the banks of the Volga, whence it 
had come. Oktai, the Great Khan, was dead, and Batu 
Khan hurried back to be present at the funeral feast, 
and to make his powerful voice, emphasized by the 
arms of his entire army, felt in the election of the 
new ruler. 

After the Mongols had withdrawn, King Bela re- 
turned, in company of a few of his trusty followers, 
to his desolated land. He tottered under the weight 
of the misfortunes and woes of his people. To. use 
the words of a contemporary writer and eye-witness 
describing the scene of desolation which met Bela's 



142 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

eyes : " Here aiid there a tower, half burnt and black- 
ened by smoke, and rearing its head towards the 
sky, like a mourning flag over a funereal monument, 
indicated the direction in which they were to ad- 
vance. The highways were overgrown with grass, 
the fields white with bleaching bones, and not a liv- 
ing soul came out to meet them. And the deeper 
they penetrated into the land, the more terrible 
became the sights they saw. When at last those 
who survived crept forth from their hiding-places, 
half of them fell victims to wild animals, starvation, 
and pestilence. The stores laid up by the tillers of 
the soil, the year before, had been carried away by 
the Mongols, and the little grain they could sow af- 
ter the departure of the enemy had hardly sprung up 
when it was devoured by locusts. The famine as- 
sumed such frightful proportions that starving peo- 
ple, in their frenzy, killed each other, and it hap- 
pened that men would bring to market human flesh 
for sale. Since the birth of Christ no country has 
ever been overwhelmed by such misery." 

Great deeds spring up in noble souls harrowed by 
misfortune. Bela showed himself greatest in the ex- 
treme misery of his nation. In order to relieve the 
wants of the people and to enable them to till the 
soil, he caused to be imported seed for sowing and 
draught cattle from the neigboring countries. He 
colonized with new inhabitants the depopulated 
regions, held out inducements to German artisans, 
miners, and traders to settle in towns, and invited 
again the Kuns, who were roaming in the regions of 
the Lower Danube, to return to their former habita- 



144 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

tions on the rich lands of the Thelss. He bestowed 
especial care upon the cities, founded new ones, and 
granted additional privileges to the old ones. He 
was also the founder of Buda, which stands to this 
day. He ordered the larger cities to be surrounded 
by walls, caused forts, built of stone, to be erected 
in the neighborhood of more important roads, and 
encouraged the great lords to build similar forts. 
He was careful to guard the eastern frontiers, but 
remembering that the durability of the internal or- 
der was as powerful a support of the security of the 
land as well defended frontiers, he was bent upon 
rnaking the laws respected. Hardly five years had 
passed since Bela engaged in his arduous task, and 
already the country recuperated to such an extent 
that the nation could receive with composure the 
news that the Mongols were making fresh prepara- 
tions for a second attack, and was even, for years, 
able to turn the weight of her whole power against 
the Western states. 

The nation which stood in such great need of 
peace, was unfortunately doomed never to enjoy its 
blessings. Bela himself, as soon as he had gained 
sufificient strength, deemed it his first duty to punish 
Frederic, the faithless Austrian duke, and to re- 
cover the treasures retained by the latter's treach- 
ery. The war between the two neighbors began in 
1246. The contest in itself was of no great signifi- 
cance but its consequences were highly important. 
Bela achieved, with the help of his Kun warriors, a 
complete triumph over Frederic, who lost his life 
on the battle-field. Frederic was the last of the 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 1 45 

Babenberg line, and the inheritance of the Baben- 
bergs, the Austrian principalities, were, through his 
death, left without a master. Bela coveted for him- 
self the masterless countries, but was opposed in 
his schemes in that direction by Ottokar, the power- 
ful king of Bohemia, who then already labored for 
the realization of his ambitious dream, the founding 
of a great Slavic empire. The Hungarian king 
could not expose his country to the dangers in- 
volved in the erection of such a Slavic empire 
along the western borders, and was therefore op- 
posed, from the beginning, to Ottokar's aspirations. 
The contest between Hungary and Bohemia was at 
first waged for the Babenberg possessions, but its 
original cause was lost sight of, and the war con- 
tinued for many years, to terminate only with the 
overthrow of Ottokar and the ruin of his empire. 
Bela was engaged in these wars during the last years 
of his reign, and they were continued by his son Ste- 
phen v., and his grandson Ladislaus IV. 

These wars brought into a community of interests 
the kings of the house of Arpad and the Haps- 
burgs, whose first great ancestor, Rudolph, ascended 
in 1273, the German imperial throne, the stability of 
which was endangered by Ottokar. The latter had 
seceded from the German empire, and was now build- 
ing up at its expense his own great Slavic kingdom. 
It was quite natural, therefore, that Ladislaus IV., 
King of Hungary, and Rudolph of Hapsburg, should 
enter into an armed alliance for the purpose of com- 
bating the common enemy, who, confident in his 
power, threatened both his eastern and his western 



146 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

neighbor. Twice they led their joint armies against 
Ottokar, and, at last, in the course of the second 
campaign in 1278, they completely routed the Czech 
armies near Stillfried and Diernkrut in the plain of 
the Morava, or March. Side by side with Rudolph's 
ten thousand men fought forty thousand Kun warri- 
orsa gainst Ottokar, the preponderance of the Hun- 
garian arms securing at last the triumph of the allies. 
Ottokar's power was overthrown and he himself fell, 
buried beneath the ruins of his kingdom. Rudolph 
strengthened the German throne, whose fate the 
events of subsequent centuries closely identified v/ith 
that of his family, and the Austrian principalities 
became the hereditary provinces of the Hapsburgs. 
Hungary derived but an unequal benefit from this 
triumph. To be sure the gratitude of the ally, freed 
from a formidable enemy, was fervent, and his vows 
of friendship (not always respected by his successors) 
most earnest. Thus Rudolph writes to Ladislaus 
IV. : " Tongue cannot tell, nor pen describe, the 
immense joy we feel at your having risen with so 
powerful a force to avenge our common injuries. 
Wherefore, glorifying God, we express the greatest 
gratitude of which we are capable to your Majesty, 
and loudly promise that no vicissitude shall shake 
us in the indissoluble alliance which we have vowed to 
you." The booty, gratifying the avarice of a few 
and the vanity of the nation, could also hardly be 
reckoned a solid advantage. One important result 
accrued, undoubtedly by the triumph of the allies, 
also to Hungary, in the destruction of Ottokar's 
Slavic kingdom. In other respects the victory 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 1^7 

proved rather a disadvantage, for, instead of strength- 
ening the power of the state, it relieved the minds 
of the powerful lords in the land, who now, freed 
from anxiety, once more indulged their self-seeking 
propensities, and labored to ruin the country. 

Ladislaus IV. (i 272-1 290) not only did not possess 
the qualities which might have enabled him to oppose 
the corruption of his age, but, by his levity, under- 
mined even the last remnant of the royal authority 
which had become more and more feeble in the 
course of the last century. The king, unmindful of 
his crown, and indifferent to the interests of the 
nation, deserted his ancestral court, and, pitching 
his residence amongst the tents of the Kuns, passed 
there his life in the society of his boon companions 
in riotous living and revels, destructive alike of his 
dignity as a man and king, and detrimental to the 
hopes of the nation. The great of the land imitated 
the example set by their king. They were led ex- 
clusively by their insatiate self-indulgence, and 
neither the law of the land nor the commands of the 
Church, the voice of faith or morality, could prevail 
upon them to respect themselves, and to have regard 
for the rights of others. The weak became the 
victims of the strong, and the most powerful were 
making preparations to divide amongst themselves 
the masterless and defenceless country. The Bre- 
biris along the sea-shore, the Nemetujvaris beyond 
the Danube, the Csak family in the regions of the 
Vag, and the Apors in Transylvania, were in reality 
the little kings of the country. They broke off a 
piece from the domain of St. Stephen whenever it 



148 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

suited them, and of the size they wanted. They let 
their troops loose upon the people, and carried on 
wars in their own way with one another, and with 
the neighbors. And if any thing escaped the greed 
of the oligarchs, it fell into the hands of the Kuns, 
who, trusting in the protection and favor of the 
king, plundered and devasted the land like maraud- 
ing armies. "' Then descended," says the chronicler, 
'* Hungary from the grandeur of her glory. Owing 
to the domestic wars the cities became deserted and 
the villages reduced to ashes, peace and harmony were 
trampled upon, the wealthy became impoverished, 
and the nobles, in their misery, turned peasants. It 
was at this period that the two-wheeled cart got 
the name of St. Ladislaus' wagon, for owing to the 
universal plundering of the draught-cattle, the number 
of the latter had decreased to such an extent that peo- 
ple were compelled to draw these carts themselves." 
The country before long, however, was free from 
the misrule of Ladislaus, but his death did not ex- 
tricate it from the misery into which he had plunged 
it. A number of Kun youths, apparently from 
motives of private vengeance, assassinated him in his 
tent. The death of Ladislaus became a new source 
of trouble to the country, for there was now but one 
male descendant of the house of Arpad to ascend 
the throne, Duke Andrew, the grandson of Andrew 
IL, the king who had given the Golden Bull to the 
Hungarians. Stephen, the father of Duke Andrew, 
had left Hungary early in life, and, settling in Venice, 
married there Tomasina Morozzoni, a lady descended 
from a distinguished patrician family. 



THE KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF ARPAD. 1 49 

Andrew III. (1290-1301), the last king of Hungary 
of the Arpad hne, was born in Venice, where he re- 
ceived his education and remained until he attained 
the age of manhood. Hitherto he had lived entirely 
a stranger to the events which had plunged the 
country with rapid strides into the uttermost mis- 
ery. There were many within the land, and among 
the neighbors abroad, who did not look upon him as 
a genuine Hungarian and who refused to acknowl- 
edge his right to the inheritance of the Arpads. Dur- 
ing his brief reign he gave, nevertheless, ample 
proofs of possessing abilities befitting an eminent 
ruler, and no blame can attach to him for having been 
unable with his inadequate strength and power to 
contend against the difficulties of that period. To 
put down the little kings in the country, and to keep 
away from the borders those foreign powers who, 
under the pretence of kinship and led by unblushing 
avariciousness, announced their claims to the inheri- 
tance at this early date, was a task to which Andrew 
HI. was not equal. But he struggled bravely and 
manfully against the difficulties that beset his royal 
path. He opposed to the oligarchs the gentry, 
whose ancient immunities he confirmed, and whom 
he attached to his person by granting them new 
ones. Duke Albert of Austria, the son of Rudolph 
of Hapsburg, who was the first to claim the throne, 
was driven from the country, but the diplomacy of 
Andrew turned him subsequently from an enemy 
into a friend and ally. He entered upon the contest 
with the Neapolitan Anjous, who, being the descend- 
ants in the female line of the Arpads, were the 



I50 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

most pressing and determined claimants to the 
throne. But at the very outset of the struggle, 
when the shock of the collision of hostile interests is 
generally most severe, and just as Andrew was pre- 
paring to enter upon the campaign against Charles 
Robert of Naples, death suddenly took him in 1301. 
The chronicles contain traces of a suspicion that he 
died by poison administered by his Italian cook, who 
had been hired for that foul purpose by the Neapol- 
itan party, and that thus, the doom of the house of 
Arpad was sealed by the wiles of an assassin. The sun 
of the Arpads set amidst dark and storm-portending 
clouds, and the new dynasty of Anjou inherited 
the great task of reconciling the oligarchs with the 
gentry, and both classes with the crown, and thus of 
restoring the ancient power and splendor of the 
Hungarian kingdom. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY. 

The male line of the house of Arpad became ex- 
tinct by the death of Andrew III. His only daugh- 
ter, Elizabeth, retired to a convent, and the nation 
was once more called upon to exercise its ancient 
right of electing a king, and three candidates, a 
Czech, a German, and an Italian, at once came into 
the field. Each of these claimants had a party in the 
country, and not until the strength of the nation had 
been wasted by internal strife and warfare during a 
period of eight years did the Italian party succeed in 
placing on the throne Charles Robert, who became 
the founder of the Hungarian Anjous. It will be 
our task now to relate how the newly elected 
ruler, taking the reins of government into his own 
hands, introduced into the country the glorious 
era of chivalry. Under the reign of the Anjous we 
shall see the culture and customs of Western Europe 
gradually taking root in Hungarian soil, the name of 
Hungary becoming the object of respect and admi- 
ration abroad, the boundaries of the kingdom ex- 
tended by a powerful hand, the crown of a brave and 
chivalrous neighbor, the Polish nation, placed upon 
the brows of the Hungarian king, until, at last, as 

151 



152 - THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

the Hungarian poet Bajza sings, " the shores of three 
seas formed the frontier walls of the kingdom." 

At first the Czech party was victorious. Wences- 
laus, the aged king of the Czechs, who, through the 
female line, was related to the house of Arpad, not 
feeling equal to the task of governing Hungary him- 
self, offered to his party, in his place, his son and 
namesake, who was but thirteen years old. On the 
27th of August, 1 301, at Stuhlweissenburg the sacred 
crown of St. Stephen was placed on the head of 
young Wenceslaus ; but his reign was of short dura- 
tion. The curse of the Church of Rome was pro- 
nounced against his partisans, but the citizens of 
Buda were little affected by this interdict, and 
caused the curse to be hurled back on the anathe- 
matizers by their own prelates. Yet the party of the 
boy-king grew so weak that his father deemed it ad- 
visable to recall him home. Wenceslaus the elder 
entered Hungary, pillaged the wealthier cathedrals, 
and expressed but one wish concerning his son — to 
see him for once attired in the royal Hungarian robes. 
His adherents complied with the wish of the old 
king, and, dressed in the royal robes and bearing the 
crown on his head, young Wenceslaus proceeded 
homeward, surrounded by his soldiers and under the 
protection of armed body-guards. 

The Italian party, intent upon avenging this affront, 
invaded the territory of the Czechs, and by frightful 
massacres made the people atone for the abduction 
of the king. The fierce Kuns, or Cumans, throwing 
Czech children, strung together by means of holes 
bored through the palms of their hands, across their 



THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY, 



153 



saddlebows, wildly tore through the land, devastating 
every thing. Very soon Albert, emperor of Germany, 
with Otto the Bavarian, came to the rescue of Wen- 
ceslaus, who, grateful for their assistance, delivered 
the crown to Otto. 

The German party, in their turn, were now victo- 
rious, and obtained possession of the crown of St. 
Stephen, the most sacred relic of the nation. Otto 




CASTLE OF ARVA. 



marched into the country, but under the auspices of a 
bad omen. The crown was, through some accident, 
lost on the road, although his attendants discovered 
it afterwards, buried in the mire. Otto, whose vanity 
prompted him to display, marched in a procession 
through the capital, Buda, adorned with all the 
paraphernalia of royalty, and from that day on, every 
king succeeding him has, after the coronation, re- 



154 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

peated this special pageant. Otto was as much the 
shadow of a king as Wenceslaus had been before 
him. In order to consohdate his power he asked in 
marriage the daughter of the most powerful Hunga- 
rian lord, Ladislaus Apor, the vayvode of Transyl- 
vania. Receiving a favorable reply, he hastened, 
full of hope, to Transylvania, but on his arrival was 
thrown into prison by the wily vayvode. After his 
liberation, which took place soon afterward, he turned 
his back for ever upon Hungary, and was satisfied 
with the empty title of King of Hungary. The 
crown, however, remained in the possession of the 
vayvode. 

The Italian party were now left masters of the 
field. The most obstinate and uncontrollable oli- 
garchs were by this time tired of the disorders pre- 
vailing in the country, and all combined with a 
hearty good-will to place Charles Robert, of Anjou, 
upon the throne of Arpad. On the 27th of August, 
1 3 10, Charles Robert was crowned for the fourth 
time, but in this instance with the sacred crown, 
which had been at length obtained from Apor. 
Charles was now the lawful king (1309- 1342), and 
could, without interference, set about the task of 
restoring order in the country, a work to which he 
proved fully equal. 

The king had many dif^culties in his way. The 
ruler de facto and de jure could call but a small por- 
tion of the kingdom really his own. The endless 
dividing up of the territory, which was characteristic 
of Germany at the close of the last century, was to 
be found in miniature also in Hungary. The dis- 



THE ANJOUS IJV HUNGARY. 1 55 

orders prevailing under the rule of the last Arpad, 
and of the two kings succeeding him, had encour- 
aged the lawlessness of the marauding nobles. 
Every one appropriated as much territory as he 
could, and exercised royal or princely authority in 
the domains thus acquired by him. While so 
many had become the possessors of large estates, 
the king was without any personal patrimony. 
These little kings had to be reduced, one by one, to 
submission, and deprived of the usurped lands. The 
most powerful of them was Matthias Csak of Trencs^n, 
and his subjection gave the greatest trouble, and 
consumed the most time. 

The power and territory of Matthias Csdk extended 
from the Northwestern Carpathians to the Theiss and 
Danube. The castle of Trencsen was the seat of this 
petty king. From this fortified castle on the Vag, built 
on a rocky eminence near the commercial road leading 
from Silesia to Hungary, he was in the habit of send- 
ing his marauders to devastate the neighboring coun- 
try. He pounced like a bird of prey from his rocky 
nest upon the unwary merchants who were passing 
with their ships below, and the poor traders esteemed 
themselves fortunate if they got safely off by leav- 
ing a portion of their wares in the freebooter's 
hands. The plunder thus got together enabled 
h\m to display royal pomp, and such was the dazzling 
sumptuousness and luxury exhibited at his castle 
that, compared to it, the king's palace seemed to be 
but a poor hut. Csak had his own palatine 
treasurer and other officers of high rank, and when 
he went about he was attended by an escort of 



156 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

several thousand armed men. It was only after a 
good deal of solicitation that Csak consented to re- 
ceive the Pope's legate, Cardinal Gentilis, and even 
then the legate had to meet Csak at the place speci- 
fied by the latter, who wished this church dignitary 
to understand that he should feel highly honored 
by being permitted to shake his hand. 

In the beginning, Csak seemed to submit to 
Charles, and, swearing fealty to the king, he consented 
to be represented at the third coronation. In order 
to win Csak's friendship and support, Charles made 
him the Guardian of the Laud. But this new 
honor did not prevent him from very soon becoming 
weary of his subordinate position, and when a law 
had been passed ordering the restitution of the 
royal castles and domains which had come into the 
possession of subjects or strangers, his wish to be in- 
dependent became even greater than before. An 
armed contest soon ensued between the king and his 
powerful subject. It was preceded, however, by a 
papal excommunication of Csdk and his adherents, 
extending even to the dead, but the impious rebel 
retorted by laying waste the lands of the neighbor- 
ing high prelates. Csak's power stood at that time 
at its height. He was the master of a domain con- 
taining over thirty fortified castles, which, to this 
day, is called by the people, after him, Matthias 
Land, and it was quite natural that the king was re- 
luctant to beard the lion in his own den. The 
king's troops first entered the territory of Szepes, 
hoping to find there the weak point of the antago- 
nist, but they were compelled to retreat before the 



THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. 15/ 

captains of Csak. The decisive battle took place 
in 1 312, north of the town of Kassa. The engage- 
ment was sharp and bloody, and terminated in the 
defeat of Csak's men. The ancestors of the 
Bathorys, Tokolyis, Drugets, and Szechenyis, who 
were amongst the most powerful families in Hungary, 
fought on this occasion by the side of the king. Al- 
though humbled, Csak's power was not greatly im- 
paired, for we find him, a few years later, strong and 
bold enough to attack John, king of Bohemia, and 
take from him the fortified castle of Holies. 

Charles Robert then turned his attention to his 
other rebellious subjects, reducing them to submis- 
sion, one by one, leaving Csak to be dealt with by 
Providence. He had not, however, to wait very long, 
for in 1 32 1 this great lord died. The manner of his 
death is described to have been frightful. Worms 
generated by his own body consumed him slowly. 
There was no one after his death to inherit his vast 
estates and with them his great power. Matthias 
Land was divided up in smaller sections, and dis- 
tributed amongst the king's favorites. The sub- 
jects of Csak, amongst them his palatine Felician 
Zach, submitted at once to the king. 

The king's attention was too much engaged by this 
domestic warfare to allow him, while it lasted, to dis- 
play the energy which marked the subsequent years 
of his reign, an energy which was destined to make 
Hungary an influential power in Central Europe. 
During these days of civil strife he had his seat in X 
Temesvar, and his household was so little befitting ^ 
royalty that its poverty frequently elicited the com- 



^ 



158 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

plaints of the higher clergy. But matters quietly 
changed when Charles transferred his residence to 
Visegrad, the royal palace to which cling so many 
fond and sad national memories, and which in our 
days still, though in ruins, looms up on the right 
bank of the Danube as a monument of Hungary's 
ancient power and glory. Charles was full of ambi- 
tious schemes to raise his family to the greatest pos- 
sible power, and the extension of the power of 
Hungary was deemed by him to be the readiest 
means of accomplishing this aim. First of all he 
stood in need of money and soldiers, but his genius 
enabled him to procure both. He exploited the rich 
mines of the country, and raised the commerce and 
industry of the realm to a flourishing condition, and 
the wealth- of the people increased to such an extent 
that he felt warranted in levying direct taxes, a 
mode of taxation which had before been entirely 
unknown in Hungary. The manner in which he 
created an army bears witness to his ingenuity. 
The county system had become so loose and dis- 
organized that no soldiers could be expected from 
that source. He had to look for them in another 
quarter. Charles knew, very well, the chivalrous 
disposition of the nation, which, in the matter of 
display, had still preserved its Oriental character ; he 
knew, too, from history, that those who appealed 
to the vanity of the Hungarian were never disap- 
pointed, and he laid his plans accordingly. He 
transplanted into Hungary one of the graceful insti- 
tutions of Western Europe, that of chivalry. Knights 
there were in the country, but they were not numer- 



THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY. 1 59 

ous and had not proved to be enthusiastic adherents 
of the king. Charles understood how to win the af- 
fections of the great lords ; he distributed coats-of- 
arms and founded orders. In the wide courts of the 
castle of Visegrad, knightly tournaments became 
frequent, and the new knights, with their fresh her- 
aldic devices, had an opportunity of meeting each 
other in armed combat in the presence of their for- 
eign king. The king's court came to be the resort 
of noble youths, and boys of noble descent became 
the playmates of the royal princes. In order to 
rouse the warlike spirit of his great nobles, he al- 
lowed those of them who joined in a campaign with 
a certain number of soldiers, to lead their men under 
banners bearing their own armorial devices. 

An event, however, of most tragic issue, which 
has furnished a fruitful theme to Hungarian poets 
and artists, almost overthrew the effect of the king's 
wise policy and endangered his life. The scene of 
the occurrence, which took place on the 17th of April, 
1330, was the magnificent palace of Visegrad. The 
former palatine of Csak, Felician Zach, had be- 
come one of the king's chief councillors, and he, 
with his daughter Clara, one of the queen's maids 
of honor, a lady of extraordinary beauty, resided in 
the king's palace. Casimir, the King of Poland, and 
the queen's brother, was at the time a guest at Vise- 
grad, and during his stay there, behaved improperly 
towards Clara Zach. The infuriated father, on 
learning this, broke in upon the royal family sitting 
in the dining-hall, and intent upon avenging the 
affront offered to his daughter, threatened every one 



l6o THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

in his way. He fell with sword drawn upon the 
royal children and their parents. The children re- 
mained unhurt, but the king was seriously wounded, 
and the queen had four of her fingers cut off. John 
Csel6nyi, the queen's treasurer, finally rushed to the 
rescue and felled the exasperated father with his 
bronze pole-axe to the ground, and the alarmed ser- 
vants, who had meanwhile hastened to the hall, gave 
the miserable man, in presence of the royal family, 
i\\.Q coup de grace. A frightful and most cruel pun 
ishment was inflicted, for her father's bloody act, on 
the unhappy Clara and all the members of the Zach 
family. The maiden's ears, nose, lips, and hands 
were cut off, and in this condition she was tied, to- 
gether with her brother, to a horse's tail, and dragged 
through the land until both died a miserable death. 
The Zach family were exterminated to the third 
degree, and the remoter kinspeople doomed to slavery. 
Such a sentence upon those who had committed 
no crime was a most vindictive and savage one, and 
the people saw the avenging finger of God in the 
results of the unhappy campaign of that year against 
the Wallachians. One of the chronicles, referring to 
the disastrous issue of the war, says: " The king had 
hitherto sailed under favorable signs, and cut, ac- 
cording to his heart's desire, through the stormy 
waves with the ship of his fortune. But changeable 
fortune had now turned her back upon him. His 
army had been defeated, and he himself is suffering 
tortures from his gouty hands and feet." 

Ban Michael Bazarad, then the ruler of Wallachia, 
dared to ignore his dependence on the crown of 



THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. l6l 

Hungary. Charles eagerly seized the opportunity to 
punish the traitorous vassal, and hoped, at the same 
time, that the indignation of the people against him 
for his cruelty would subside at the news of a vic- 
torious campaign against the Wallachians. Declin- 
ing the offers of peace made by the repentant ban, 
Charles boldly advanced, with his spirited knights, 
over the impassable and unfamiliar roads of Walla- 
chia. He had penetrated so far into the land that 
his further advance was rendered impossible by the 
absence of any road, and he was determined to re- 
trace his steps. The Hungarian army was led astray 
by the Wallachian guides, and in retreating found 
itself quite unexpectedly hemmed in between steep 
and towering rocks from which there was no outlet. 
A shower of stones descended on their heads ; the 
Wallachians who occupied the heights sent down 
dense volleys of rocks and arrows upon the doomed 
Hungarians. Charles himself owed his escape to 
the generous devotion of Desiderius Szecsi, one of 
his men, with whom he changed dresses. This 
brave warrior sealed his devotion with his life. The 
enraged Wallachians, mistaking him for the king, 
attacked him from every side, and after valiantly 
resisting, he finally fell on the battle-field. His sov- 
ereign escaped in safety, and Wallachia maintained 
her independence. 

Charles, upon his return home, once more busied 
himself with the carrying out of his ambitious schemes 
for the aggrandizement of his family, and the results 
of his efforts gave ample proof of his political 
sagacity. He acquired for his family both Naples 



r62 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

and Poland, although as yet on paper only. Poland 
became only under his son Louis the undoubted 
possession of the Hungarian king, while Naples 
never came under his control. In 1335 Visegrad re- 
sounded incessantly with the din of feasting and 
merrymaking ; never before nor afterwards were so 
many royal guests harbored within its stately walls. 
There were Casimir, become King of Poland, the 
last descendant of the Piast family ; John, the ad- 
venturous King of the Czechs, who subsequently died 
the death of a hero on the field of Crecy ; his son 
Charles, the Margrave of Moravia, and subsequently 
Emperor of Germany ; three knights of the first class 
belonging to the order of German Knights ; the 
dukes of Saxony and Liegnitz, and numerous church 
and lay magnates. The entertainment of so many 
distinguished guests constituted a heavy draft on the 
royal treasury. A contemporary chronicler states 
that " fifteen hundred loaves of bread and one hun- 
dred and eighty flasks of wine were needed daily 
for the court of the king of Poland." Whilst the 
guests were feasting, Charles employed all his in- 
genuity in shaping the destinies of Eastern Europe. 
His negotiations with Casimir, the King of Poland, 
resulted in an agreement that Poland should de- 
scend, after his death, to Louis, the son of Charles. 
Two years later Charles had the satisfaction of 
learning that the Polish nation had confirmed the 
private arrangement, and had acknowledged the 
right of his son's succession to the throne of Po- 
land. One of the finest monuments of Hun^a- 

o 

rian mediaeval architecture, the cathedral in Kassa, 




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164 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

owed its completion to this welcome news. Queen 
Elizabeth ordered it to be completed in her joy at 
the elevation of her son Louis. Charles had also 
tried to secure Naples for his son Andrew, by having 
him betrothed, at the age of six, to Joanna, the 
grand-daughter and heir of the king of Naples. In 
July, 1333, the young prince proceeded to Naples to 
take possession of his kingdom, as his father thought, 
but in reality, as subsequent events proved, to the 
place of his destruction. Charles died at a not very 
advanced age, having brought most of his plans to a 
successful issue in his lifetime. 

Six days after his death the crown of Hungary 
was placed upon the head of his son Louis, after- 
wards surnamed the Great, who was then seven- 
teen years old (i 342-1 382). The young king im- 
mediately proceeded on a pilgrimage to the tomb of 
St. Ladislaus, the most popular Hungarian king, at 
Grosswardein. There at his grave he made a sacred 
vow to govern the Hungarian nation after the ex- 
ample of his great predecessor. From Grosswardein 
he proceeded to Transylvania to receive the oath of 
fealty of the son of Michael Bazarad. Hardly re- 
turned to his palace at Visegrad, the young king 
received depressing news regarding his brother at 
Naples. The young Hungarian prince was looked 
upon with jealousy by the numerous Italian dukes 
at the Neapolitan court, who tried by every means 
to hinder his accession to the throne. His mother, 
the Hungarian queen, at once hastened, laden with 
treasure, to Naples, to rescue her son from the 
machinations of his enemies. The Hungarian money 



THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY. 1 6$ 

had its due effect at the papal court, whose vassal 
Naples was at that time. Queen Elizabeth obtained 
the assurance that her son Andrew would be 
crowned, but she returned to Hungary before the 
ceremony of coronation had taken place. At her 
departure her mind was filled with evil forebodings, 
which were but too well justified by coming events. 
The queen's departure was the signal for fresh in- 
trigues at the Neapolitan court. Philip and Louis 
of Taranto, the sons of Catharine of Valois, openly 
insulted the young prince. Joanna wickedly turned 
from her husband and sided with his enemies. At 
length the day of the coronation was approaching. 
Andrew, relying on the power he was soon to wield, 
warned his enemies that he would avenge the affronts 
that had been heaped upon him. His enemies were 
seized with terror upon seeing, at the tournament 
which took place shortly before the coronation, the 
axe and noose depicted beneath the arms of Andrew, 
floating on high on his banner. The imminent dan- 
ger rendered the intriguing dukes desperate, and 
they at once determined to put Andrew out of the 
way. His assassination was resolved upon, and, 
Joanna giving her assent to the nefarious plan, the 
young prince was doomed. 

On the 1 8th of September, 1345, the whole court, 
and amongst them Joanna, proceeded to Aversa, to 
indulge in the merry pastime of the chase. Andrew 
was accompanied by his faithful Hungarian nurse, 
Izolda, who, poor creature, little dreamed that her 
ward was to be the object of the chase. In the 
evening the whole company took up their quarters 



l66 THE STOR V OF HUNGAR K 

at the convent of St. Peter. Andrew had just retired 
to his chamber when a familiar voice called him into 
the adjoining room, in order to discuss some grave 
questions. The unsuspecting youth, anticipating no 
evil, left his chamber, but no sooner had he crossed 
the threshold when the door was locked behind him 
by his secretary. The assassins lying in wait fell 
upon their victim at once and strangled him ; his 
cries for help remaining unheeded. His dead body 
they then dragged to the balcony and precipitated it 
into the garden below. Whilst this bloody scene 
was enacted, Joanna slept soundly, undisturbed by 
the scuffle at her door, and cries of distress of her 
husband. She afterwards gave the explanation that 
she had been put under a spell by a witch. 

There was mourning at the castle of Visegrad at 
the sad tidings. Louis swore dire vengeance, and 
the natioil' enthusiastically took up arms to support 
him. From abroad there arrived but voices of sym- 
pathy. The Italian princes offered his armies free 
transit through their territories ; Louis, the excom- 
municated German Emperor, entered into an alliance 
with the king; Edward IIL, the King of England, 
while condoling with him, spurred him on to re- 
venge ; the Pope alone maintained an ominous 
silence. This time, however, the desire for revenge 
proved stronger with the king than his reverence 
for the Pope, and in 1347 the Hungarian army was 
ready to march. To punish a faithless woman and 
not to conquer Italy was the object of their expe- 
dition, and the Italian princes were glad to afford the 
king's army every facility to reach the proposed goal. 



THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY, 1 6/ 

All the great lords of the realm rallied round the 
king. A large black flag was carried in front of the 
Hungarian army and on it was depicted the pale, face 
of Andrew. On two occasions they were led by the 
king against Naples, and each time he was accompa- 
nied by the most distinguished Hungarian families. 
Michael Kont, Andrew and Stephen Laczfy, with 
Dionysius, the son of the latter, and a host of 
others, brought with them their armed trains, by 
whose mighty blows both Aversa, of mournful mem- 
ory, and proud Naples were soon reduced. Queen 
Joanna, with her second husband, Louis of Taranto, 
escaped beyond the sea. Louis of Durazzo, one of 
the intriguing dukes who was suspected of having 
been an accessory to the murder, expiated his crime 
by being killed after a gay carouse and thrown down 
from .the same balcony which had witnessed the 
foul deed of the conspirators. Four other dukes 
were carried to Hungary as prisoners. King Louis 
himself was always foremost in battle and received 
grave wounds on more than one occasion. But his 
chief desire — to punish Joanna — was not gratified and 
at length he entrusted the Pope with the sentence to 
be pronounced against her. The Pope, however, de- 
clared her innocent of the crime of murder, imputed 
to her, but mulcted her in a fine of 300,000 ducats as 
a restitution of the expenditures of the campaign. 
The chivalrous king spurned the blood-money and 
left the punishment of guilty Joanna to a more up- 
right judge — to Providence. And Providence dealt 
more severely with the queenly culprit than the suc- 
cessor to St. Peter's see had done. Charles of 



1 68 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

Durazzo, called also Charles the Little, son of Louis 
of Durazzo, having conquered the throne of Naples, 
ordered Queen Joanna in 1382, thirty-seven years 
after the commission of her crime, to be thrown into 
prison, where she met her death by strangling. 

During the. Italian campaign Hungary was also 
called upon to meet another enemy in the East. 
Roving populations were making constant inroads on 
the eastern border, harassing the Hungarian inhabi- 
tants, who had by this time become accustomed to 
the peaceful avocations of the husbandman and 
tradesman. The victorious arms of King Louis 
soon put an end to those lawless incursions. But 
one of the most beautiful legends of Hungarian 
history is connected with one of the campaigns 
against these marauding populations. Kieystut, the 
Prince of Lithuania, after having been defeated 
several years before, broke into Transylvania with 
an army considerably swelled by the accession of a 
numerous body of Tartars. The king sent Louis 
Laczfy, the vayvode of Transylvania, against him, 
and the brave Szekely people followed in his train. 
But the Hungarian army was small and the issue of 
the battle remained for a long time doubtful. The 
legend tells that the news of the peril threatening 
the Hungarian arms reached Grosswardein, where 
St. Ladislaus lay buried, and that the heroic saint, 
leaving his grave, bestrode the bronze horse of his 
own statue, which stood in the centre of the public 
square, and hurried off to the relief of his distressed 
countrymen. The Tartars were struck with the 
apparition of a warrior "who towered over them 



THE AN you S IN HUNGARY. 1 69 

head and shoulders," and above whom was visible 
the holy Virgin Mary, the patroness of Hungary. 
The pagans were seized with terror at this sight, 
and the battle ended in a brilliant victory for the 
Hungarians. 

The arms of the king were no less successful in 
Servia where he was about " to kindle the light of 
faith." But the most glorious of his wars was the 
one carried on against proud Venice, which con- 
tinued during the greater portion of his reign. Her 
enemies, especially Genoa, willingly sided with the 
king of Hungary, and the ultimate result was the 
utter humiliation of the city of St. Mark. At last, 
in 1 38 1, one year before the king's death, peace was 
concluded between the two belligerents, a peace of 
which the Hungarians had every reason to be proud, 
for by its terms Dalmatia was unconditionally annexed 
to Hungary, and Venice herself had to send the Hun- 
garian king, annually on St. Stephen's Day, the 20th 
of August, a tribute of 7,000 ducats. As an indication 
of the high esteem in which the name of Hungary was 
held at that time, it is interesting to learn that for- 
eign rulers sent their children to the Hungarian 
court to be educated, and the inference is not a 
strained one that the court of Louis must have been 
a centre of the European culture and refinement of 
that day. The spouse selected by the king, 
Elizabeth, the daughter of Stephen, the Prince of 
Bosnia, had herself been sent to the court to be 
trained in courtly accomplishments. At the Hun- 
garian court also, Charles IV., the Emperor of Ger- 
many, wooed Anna, the Duchess of Schweidnitz, his 



I/O THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 

future empress. These two rulers were united by 
ties of close friendship, until the discontent of the 
Germans with " the step-father of their country," as 
they called Charles IV., ripened a scheme to transfer 
the German crown to the Hungarian king. Although 
King Louis refused to accept the crown proffered to 
him, the sting remained, and his imperial friend be- 
came his deadly enemy. The emperor persisted 
in indulging in his unfounded suspicions of the 
king's good faith, and so far forgot himself as to 
speak insultingly of the king and his exalted mother. 
The Hungarian ambassadors at the emperor's court, 
incensed at the affront done to their master, chal- 
lenged the emperor to mortal combat. But he 
cravenly declined to accept the challenge, where- 
upon they declared war in the name of their king. 
Louis, who almost worshipped his mother, approved 
of the proceedings of his ambassadors, and sent the 
emperor an insulting letter, in which he declared that 
nothing better might be expected from a drunkard. 
Very soon a large army of Kuns devastated Moravia, 
until, at length, after a warfare of several years, the 
humiliated emperor begged for peace, obtaining the 
Pope's intercession in his behalf. Peace was at last 
concluded, and matrimonial alliances were to make 
it doubly sure. Sigismund, the emperor's son, was 
betrothed to Mary, the king's daughter. 

In the latter half of the fourteenth century Chris- 
tianity in Europe was threatened by a new foe. The 
warlike followers of Osman had, by the capture of 
Adrianople firmly laid the foundations of their power- 
ful empire in Europe. Youths, forcibly taken at a 



THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY. I /I 

tender age from their Christian parents, and educa- 
ted afterwards in implicit obedience to the behests of 
the Sultan, were rigorously trained as soldiers after 
the most approved fashion of the day, and the troops 
thus obtained were destined to become the most 
formidable aid in the building of the Ottoman power 
in Europe. The Eastern empire had sunk too low, at 
that time, to be able, single-handed, to resist such a 
power, and she lost her strongholds, one after the 
other. In this strait her ruler resorted to one of 
those deceitful devices characterizing the policy of 
the Eastern court. John Palaeologos, the Eastern em- 
peror, proceeded to the court of the king of Hun- 
gary, at Buda, and, promising to give in his adhesion 
to the Western Church, he asked the aid of Louis 
against the savage enemy. The " Banner-bearer of 
the Church," as the king of Hungary was styled by 
the Pope, deemed it his duty, under these circum- 
stances, to come to the rescue of the distressed 
emperor, and shortly afterwards the two kindred 
nations, the Turks and the Hungarians, met in hostile 
array on the banks of the Maritza. This was the 
first warlike contest of the two nations. It resulted 
in the victory of 20,000 Hungarians over a Turkish 
army four times as large, a victory commemorated 
to this day by the treasures and appropriate inscrip- 
tions still to be seen at the church of Mariazell in 
Styria. 

Casimir, the last Polish king of the house of Piast, 
died on the 5th of November, 1370. His death 
was caused by an injury contracted in falling from 
his horse during the chase. 



1/2 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

On the 17th of the same month Louis was 
crowned King of Poland, at Cracow, by the Arch- 
bishop of Gnesen. At the very moment when he 
was about to reach the goal of the highest ambition 
of his predecessor, and of himself, Louis seemed to 
waver, and to doubt the expediency of accepting the 
crown. He could not help reflecting that governing 
two nations, which were united by no other tie ex- 
cept his own person, and defending them against 
their enemies, might prove a task to which one king 
was not equal. He nevertheless accepted the crown, 
but his sinister presentiments were fated speedily to 
be confirmed. The Polish lords were not used to an 
energetic rule. The nobles of Little and Great 
Poland were eager, each for themselves, to secure 
the of^ces of state, but both equally hated the queen- 
mother sent there to rule. The country soon fell 
a prey to internal dissensions and strife, compell- 
ing the queen to fly from the land, in which a new 
pretender had appeared. This pretender to the 
throne was a kinsman of the late king of Poland, 
and had retired to a convent in France in the life- 
time of Casimir. His ambition made him exchange 
the cassock for armor, and a large portion of the 
people of Poland very soon acknowledged him to be 
their king. But his royalty was of short duration ; 
the army of the adventurer was scattered by the ad- 
herents of King Louis. 

The Lithuanians, whom we have before mentioned 
as being driven back by Andrew Laczfy, now took 
advantage of the disorders prevailing in Poland, and 
succeeded in securing such a foothold in that coun- 



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1/4 THE STORY OF HUNGARY.' 

try that one of their dukes, Jagello, who was con- 
verted to Christianity, and subsequently married 
Hedvig, the daughter of King Louis, became in the 
course of a few years the founder of a new PoHsh 
dynasty, the Jagellons, a dynasty of mournful mem- 
ory in the history of Hungary. 

The last days of Louis were embittered by the 
disorders in Poland. He who had succeeded every- 
where else failed there. Disappointment shortened 
his life; upon returning to Tyrnau on the nth 
of September, 1382, from attending the Polish 
diet convened in Hungary, he was taken ill, and 
breathed there his last. The Hungarian nation lost 
in him one of their greatest kings. His reign was 
stormy but glorious. The Hungarian banner floated 
always victoriously on his numerous battle-fields, 
and he humbled the enemies of the nation. In spite 
of his many wars, Louis found leisure to devote his 
time to the cultivation of the arts of peace. He gave 
laws to his country, which secured her permanance, 
and remained in force up to the most recent ages. 
He brought order into the affairs of the Church, and 
into the administration of justice. He was a zeal- 
ous patron of learning, and established a university 
at Fiinfkirchen (Pecs). His court, the seat of which 
he fixed at Buda, was brilliant ; the Western customs, 
brought over from Italy, prevailing there. In times 
of peace magnificent tilts and tournaments at home 
took the place of the bloody game of war abroad, 
and the distribution of arms and knightly distinc- 
tions introduced by his father continued during his 
reign on even a larger scale. On all occasions Louis 



THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY. 1/5 

showed himself to be a brave, wise, and pious king, 
whose long rule is described by an eminent Hun- 
garian historian as proving " a continued blessing " 
for his nation. 

Dark days succeeded the glorious reign of Louis. 
The Hungarian nation was eager to testify their 
gratitude to their great king by a concession made 
to his dynasty — notwithstanding its foreign origin, — 
which they had refused to make to the glorious dyn- 
asty of the native Arpad family. After the king's 
death his daughter Mary was proclaimed queen and 
the crown conferred upon her. But the crown 
brought little joy to Mary, for the festivities of 
the coronation were hardly finished when she was 
mxcnaced by dangers coming from two sides. The 
Poles hated Sigismund, to whom Mary was affianced, 
and insisted also that their ruler should live amongst 
them. Elizabeth, the queen-mother, in order to con- 
ciliate the opposition of the Poles, and not to risk 
the loss of Poland, offered them, as a substitute for 
Mary, her younger daughter Hedvig. The Poles 
agreed to this compromise, upon the condition that 
they should select a husband for Hedvig, their queen. 
It was a great trial for Hedvig to part from William, 
Duke of Austria, to whom she was betrothed, but her 
choice lay between him and the crown of Poland. 
The allurements of the latter prevailed, and in Febru- 
ary, 1386, the Polish nation celebrated the nuptials 
of their queen with the Lithuanian duke, Jagello, re- 
cently converted to Christianity, whom they had 
chosen for her husband. This marriage put an end 
to the union of the two countries, and Poland had 
once more a ruler of her own. 



1/6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 

There was greater danger threatening Hungar}^ 
from the south. The nobles of Croatia were dissatis- 
fied with female rule. There were some ambitious 
men who were incensed to see themselves excluded 
from the royal court, whilst a man of low descent, 
like Garay, the palatine, took the lead there. They 
were intent upon destroying the government in 
order to remove the queen. In Charles of Du- 
razzo, who owed the throne of Naples to Louis the 
Great, they found a man who was willing to become 
a candidate for the throne of Hungary. The traitors, 
however, on the appearance in their midst of the 
energetic Garay, accompanied by the queen and the 
queen-mother Elizabeth, kept quiet for a while. 
But no sooner had the royal party left Croatia, when 
these men, who all owed their honors to the favor of 
the late king, resumed their machinations, and pre- 
vailed upon Charles of Durazzo to perjure himself 
and to break the oath he had pledged to the late 
king not to disturb his daughter Mary in the pos- 
session of her throne. In 1385, undeterred by the 
warnings of his wife, he arrived in Croatia. 

Meanwhile the marriage of Mary and Sigismund 
had taken place. The latter, in order to collect an 
army with which he should be enabled to oppose the 
advancing enemy and defend the rights of his royal 
spouse, hypothecated a portion of the country to 
raise the necessary funds. This ill-timed transaction 
increased the chances of his opponent, for the na- 
tion saw with indignation that Sigismund, in the 
capacity of "the guardian of the realm " only, with- 
out possessing any royal rights, began his guardian- 



THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY. 1/7 

ship by thus disposing of Hungarian territory. Such 
a disgraceful transaction was unknown in the his- 
tory of the country, and it was not long before Char- 
les could enter Buda, without let or hindrance ; dis-" 
guising, however, even then, his lawless aspirations, 
by pretending to have only come to make peace be- 
tween the nation and her queen. But Charles was 
not long in showing his true designs. On the 31st of 
December, 1385, the cathedral of Stuhlweissenburg 
witnessed a most moving scene. The coronation of 
the usurper Charles was to be solemnized ; the 
church was crowded, to its remotest corner, with 
sumptuously dressed lords. The widowed queen 
and her daughter Mary were also in attendance. 
The customary question was asked of the magnates 
of the land, by the Primate of Hungary, whether 
they wished Charles to be their king. The enthusi- 
astic acclamations of assent became, at the Primate's 
third appeal, feebler and feebler as the piteous 
sobs of the two queens, who had sunk upon their 
father's and husband's grave, resounded in the 
church. The coronation proceeded nevertheless, 
and whilst the archbishop sent up his prayers of 
grace to heaven, the widowed queen was silently 
vowing desperate vengeance at the grave of her 
husband. Bad omens followed the pageant; dur- 
ing the solemn procession the banner of St. Stephen 
split into pieces, and as the new king entered the 
gates of his palace at Buda, its walls wxre shaken to 
its very foundations by a tremendous thunder-storm. 
Charles had occupied the throne thirty-nine days 
only, when he was summoned by the widowed queen, 



178 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

residing under one roof with him, into her presence 
to settle some grave matters of state. The king 
obeyed the summons, and was humbly received by 
Garay the palatine, Blasius Forgach the lord cup- 
bearer, Thomas Szent-Gyorgyi, the ban of Croatia, 
and the other lords present. The council had hardly 
commenced when, at a hint from the palatine, For- 
gach got behind the king and struck him on the 
head with his pole-axe. The blow inflicted a mor_ 
tal wound and the king fainted away. The assassins 
had made careful preparations for the bloody event. 
Whilst Forgach was doing away with the king in the 
council-chamber, his Italian soldiers, in the palace, 
were disarmed by Garay's men. Charles was taken 
to Visegrad, where he was thrown into prison and 
afterwards strangled. 

The news of the king's assassination stirred up 
fresh discontents in Croatia, where his party had 
been most numerous. Garay imagined he could 
quell the rebellion again by appearing amongst 
them. The two queens approved of his scheme, 
and proceeded, in his company, to Croatia. This 
time, however, their going to Croatia was to prove 
fatal to them. The queens, travelling with a small 
escort, were surprised by John Horvathy, one of the 
rebels, near Diakovar, and a mortal struggle ensued 
between the rebels and the queen's escort. Garay 
and Forgach fought with exasperation in defence of 
the queens. Garay, pierced by arrows, set his back 
against the coach, valiantly selling his life, and not 
allowing the enemy to approach his royal charges 
except across his dead body. All this heroism was 



THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. Ijg 

wasted in the face of the overpowering number of 
the rebels, and the dreadful spectacle was soon pre- 
sented to the queens of having the heads of their 
faithful defenders cut off before their very eyes. 
The queens themselves were placed in confinement 
at Novigrad, on the sea-shore. The long series of 
deaths by violence, which appeared to persecute the 
Anjou race like a curse, was destined to have one 
more added to it at Novigrad. The widow of Louis 
the Great was, after a short imprisonment, strangled 
by one of the rebels before the eyes of her unfor- 
tunate daughter. 

The disorders had now reached their climax; one 
of the crowned rulers of Hungary, Charles, had been 
assassinated, the other, Mary, was a prisoner at 
Diakovar. The rebels were preparing to bring the 
son of the usurper Charles into the country, while 
another party had cast their eyes upon Ladislaus 
Jagello, the husband of Hedvig, as an available 
aspirant to royal honors. The Prince of Servia was 
arming to attack Hungary from the south, and 
Poland was preparing to invade the country from 
the northeast, whilst the princes of Wallachia and 
Moldavia, vassals of Hungary, declared their inde- 
pendence. So many disasters demanded a prompt 
remedy, and the nation, in their distress, decided to 
accept as their ruler Sigismund, the queen's husband. 
He was acknowledged as king, and the crown of St. 
Stephen was placed on his head by Benedek, the 
bishop of Veszprem, in March, 1387, and his reign 
lasted until 1437. To these melancholy circum- 
stances did Sigismund, of the house of Luxemburg, 



1 8o THE STOR V OF HUN GAR V. 

owe his elevation to the throne of Hungary. It was 
a heavy burden that he had taken upon his shoul- 
ders, the task of bringing order into the affairs of 
the distracted country. His first and foremost duty 
was to liberate his august wife from her imprison- 
ment, but it must be reluctantly admitted that he 
exhibited little zeal in the accomplishment of this. 
While he was travelling leisurely from place to place 
without seemingly heeding the danger of delay, 
Venice came to the rescue. The statesmen of the 
city of St. Mark had watched, with jealousy the 
union of Naples and Hungary in the hands of one 
ruler, and to obviate this danger to their own city, 
they sought the friendship of Sigismund, and sent 
vessels of war against his rebellious subjects. John 
Palisna, in whose charge the imprisoned queen had 
been placed, readily delivered her up to John Barba- 
dico, the captain of the republic, stipulating only for 
himself the right of leaving without molestation. In 
July, 1388, husband and wife met near Agram (Za- 
grab), and Sigismund made up for his former laxity 
by sumptuously rewarding the Venetians who had 
liberated his queen. 

The newly elected king had on the very threshold 
of his reign a twofold difficulty to face. He had to 
quellthe rebellion, which in the southern part of his 
dominions was still active, and to arrest the en- 
croachments of the Turkish power. He succeeded 
in putting down the rebellion. He marched into 
Croatia and Bosnia, pursuing the rebels to their 
mountain fastnesses, and after many years of varying 
fortunes of war he reduced them to obedience. The 



THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY. l8l 

survivors of the scattered rebels sought refuge in the 
wild forests of Syrmia. A small band of thirty men 
rallied round Stephen Kont of Hedervar, the son of 
the famous palatine Michael, a man noted for his 
bravery. Sigismund charged Vajdafy, one of his 
trusty men, with the reduction of this band. He 
found it, however, impossible to get near them, and 
finally resorted to a stratagem. Vajdafy promised 
them a free pardon from Sigismund if they sur- 
rendered and came up to Buda with him. The 
thirty-one warriors accepted this proposal, but on 
their way the treacherous Vajdafy ordered them to 
be placed in chains. They were so incensed at this 
disgraceful treatment, that they determined not to do 
homage to the king when brought into his presence. 
They refused to bend their knees before him. The 
king did not reflect long, but ordered the thirty-one 
gallants to be taken to St. George's Place in Buda, 
where they met their death at the hands of the exe- 
cutioner. Kont was the last to lay his head on the 
block. His faithful page Csoka burst into tears at 
the bloody sight. Sigismund comforted the youth, 
telling him he Avould be a better master to him than 
Kont was. " I shall never serve thee, Czech hog," 
was the boy's reply, a reply which cost him his life, 
for he was immediately executed. This barbarous 
and illegal act of the king would no doubt have pro- 
voked, in ordinary times, a rebellion in the country, 
but the general attention was just then absorbed by 
the encroachments of the Turks. 

Servia had already become a vassal state of the 
Turks, and was compelled to swell with her army 



1 82 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

the power of the mightiest foe to Christianity. The 
last victory won by the Servians over the Turks was 
in 1387, when they mowed down two thirds of the 
Turkish army, numbering 20,000 men. Sultan Murad 
invaded Servia in 1389 to avenge the disgrace of 
defeat. He was met in June by Lazarus, the last 
independent Prince of Servia, on the Kosovo (black- 
bird) field, called in Hungarian the Rigomezo. The 
engagement was a bloody one, and disastrous to the 
rulers on both sides. Sultan Murad received his 
death wound from the dagger of a Servian soldier, 
whilst Prince Lazarus was delivered by his own son- 
in-law, Vuk Brankovitch, into the hands of the Turks 
and into the jaws of certain death. With Lazarus 
was lost the independence of Servia, and his scat- 
tered army fled in dismay from the ill-fated battle- 
field. This victory had brought the Turks one step 
nearer to the borders of Hungary, and added further 
to the fear of their victorious arms in that Bajazet, 
the successor of Murad, surnamed the " Lightning," 
was known to be eager for new conquests. Two 
years after the battle of Kosovo we find the Turks 
already on Hungarian soil. Sigismund tried, at first, 
negotiations. Viddin, Nicopolis, and Silistria, which 
belonged to Hungary under Louis the Great, had 
recently fallen into the hands of the Turks. Sigis- 
mund sent an embassy to Bajazet calling upon him 
to surrender these cities to their rightful owner. 
The sultan received the embassy at Brussa, and, con- 
ducting them into a hall ornamented with arms and 
weapons of every description, he pointed at these, 
saying : " Go back and tell your king that, as you 



THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. 1 83 

see for yourself, I have a good enough title to these 
lands." Sigismund rightly understood this to be a 
declaration of war. He at once summoned the 
chivalry of Europe to take part in a crusade against 
the infidels, and entered into an alliance with Manuel 
II., the Emperor of the East. Many knights from 
England, France, and Italy responded to the call. 

Meanwhile, Mary, the wife of Sigismund, died in 
1395. It was to her that Sigismund owed his throne, 
and now that she was no more, there was nothing to 
keep up the ties of affection between the people and 
their restless and inconstant king. Sigismund hoped 
to dazzle the nation by the glory of a successful war. 
In 1396 he marched the assembled crusaders to 
Nicopolis against the Turks. The king, surrounded 
by the chief captains of the army, was merrily feasting 
when the news was brought that Bajazet, the " Light- 
ning," was approaching. Both armies were eager for 
the contest. The French knights, in spite of Sigis- 
mund's protests, claimed the privilege of the first 
attack. Ignorant of the Turkish system of fighting, 
which consisted in sending the weakest and least- 
disciplined troops to the fore, to bear the brunt of 
the first attack, the French rushed with their united 
strength upon the enemy. The attack, as usual, was 
favorable to the French arms, but hardly had they 
dispersed the inferior troops when they found them- 
selves face to face with the serried ranks of the Spahis 
and Janissaries. The hot-blooded Frenchmen were 
no match for these incomparable soldiers, and a large 
portion of them fell oh the battle-field while the re- 
mainder were taken prisoners. This discomfiture had 



1 84 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

a depressing effect on the other crusaders, and their 
army scattered in disorderly flight. Sigismund, him- 
self, escaped only with great difficulty, and took 
refuge on a ship on the Danube which brought him 
to Constantinople. 

This unlucky campaign proved a fresh source of 
trouble to the country, for the king, keenly feeling 
the disgrace of his defeat, stayed away from Hun- 
gary for over half a year. The southern part of 
Hungary was again in rebellion and many, believing 
in the false report of the king's death, were desirous 
of proceeding to the election of a successor. The 
king, apprehensive of losing his throne, came back 
and, in his own fashion, rewarded his friends and 
punished his opponents. 

In order to add to the number of his adherents he 
distributed amongst them, in defiance of an ancient 
law, the crown-lands. He filled the highest positions 
in the state with foreigners. This was more than 
the Hungarian lords would submit to, especially 
after the disgraceful defeat the king had just suffered 
on the battle-field. The impatient magnates, weary 
of his inglorious rule, entered upon a conspiracy to 
overthrow the king. On the 28th of April, 1401, a 
number of the great lords of the land assembled at 
Buda and requested the attendance of the king, 
in order to take counsel on affairs of state. The 
Garays, the unflinching adherents of the king, knew 
what was going to happen, but did not dare to 
divulge or oppose the plans of the conspirators. 
Sigismund appeared among the assembled mag- 
nates, but only to find out, too late, that he was, in 



THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY. 1 8$ 

fact, their prisoner. He was taken to Visegrad and 
confined in its castle. Another king had now to be 
elected. Three claimants were on the field — Lad- 
islaus Jagello, William of Austria, and Ladislaus, 
the son of Charles the Little. It was fortunate, 
however, for the king that no election could be 
agreed upon ; and, while the magnates were taking 
counsel with each other, the Garays succeeded in 
liberating the king and took him to Siklos, one of 
their own fortified castles. His followers, mean- 
while, took up arms in his cause and succeeded in 
placing him again on the throne, after he had been 
a prisoner for four months. But before doing so 
they obtained his promise not to punish or molest 
the conspirators. Michael Garay was generously re- 
warded for his exertions on behalf of Sigismund ; he 
received annually a pension of one thousand ducats, 
and was appointed to the dignity of a palatine. The 
severe lesson was of benefit to the king. He ap- 
peared totally changed after his experience in prison. 
He faithfully kept the promise he had given, and 
did not molest the rebellious lords, but rather sought 
their friendship, and, making union with them, seri- 
ously endeavored by legal means to improve the 
government of the country. 

He had hardly seized the reins of government 
with firm hands, when the cry of battle called him 
again away. Having no son, Sigismund tried to 
secure the throne for his daughter Elizabeth. She 
was affianced to Albert of Austria, and the king pre- 
vailed upon one hundred and ten lords to sign a 
document by which his daughter's husband would. 



1 86 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

after the king's demise, become entitled to wear the 
crown of St. Stephen. The NeapoHtan party was 
roused into rebelhon by this arrangement, and Lad- 
islaus of Naples penetrated into the interior of the 
country. The primate of the realm, the archbishop 
of Gran, sided with the rebels and placed the crown 
of Hungary upon the head of the invading for- 
eigner. Sigismund, who was just then amongst the 
Czechs, whose crown he coveted, hastened home upon 
learning the peril with which he was menaced. The 
followers of Ladislaus were soon put down, and, 
being assured of the king's pardon, they all gave in 
their submission. Ladislaus, fearful lest the fate of 
his father, Charles the Little, should overtake him, 
left the country, and henceforth dared not to ques- 
tion the right of Sigismund to the crown. In the 
course of the years that followed some wise measures 
were introduced concerning the privileges and fran- 
chises of the cities, and regulating the relations of 
the Church of Hungary to the Vatican. The Pope 
having been the most zealous partisan of Ladislaus 
of Naples, a law was enacted putting an end to the 
Pope's right of interference in the affairs of the 
Hungarian Church. 

The king formed again new marriage ties, and 
took Barbara, the daughter of Count Arminius 
Cilley, the powerful lord of the Styrian castle of 
Cilli, for his wife. The new queen added but lit- 
tle to his happiness. The king established the order 
of the dragon in commemoration of his wedding. 
The insignia of the order were a red cross with a 
gold dragon who twisted his tail in a circular shape 



THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY. 1 8/ 

around his own neck. The membership was confined 
to twenty-four, who bound themselves to defend the 
Christian faith against the Turks. The king and 
queen were the first members of the order, the re- 
maining members were selected from among the 
highest dignitaries of the land. A high distinction 
fell to the lot of the king of Hungary on the 20th of 
September, 14 lo. Ruprecht, who had been elevated 
to the imperial throne of Germany, after the deposi- 
tion of Wenceslaus the drunkard (the half insane 
brother of Sigismund), was now dead. Wenceslaus 
was now striving to regain the lost dignity, but in this 
he was opposed by his own brother Sigismund. The 
electoral princes voted for the latter. This was the 
first time that a similar distinction had been con- 
ferred upon the wearer of the crown of St. Stephen. 
The nation felt proud of the exaltation of their king, 
but the nation as well as the king found subsequently 
ample reason to regret their premature rejoicing. In- 
deed the fears of St. Ladislaus and Louis the Great, 
who had declined the imperial crown lest they might, 
accepting it, be caused to neglect the affairs of Hun- 
gary, proved but too well founded. The business of 
the emperor required his presence elsewhere, and 
while he was absent for years from the country, 
matters at home visibly went to rack and ruin. 
The emperor-king could not spare time to attend 
to the most important duty of his reign, the driving 
back of the Turks, and, there can be no doubt, that 
it was owing less to the civil wars of that period 
than the lukewarmness of Sigismund in the face of 
the Ottoman advances during the last years of his 



1 88 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

reign, that it became possible for the Moslem power 
to obtain possession, a century later, of the strong- 
hold of Christianity. The signs of the coming life- 
and-death struggle became already apparent — and 
once the struggle begun there was no way to de- 
stroy the Ottoman power, nor could a favorable 
opportunity, once missed, return again. 

The fortunes of war were once more propitious to 
the Hungarians — in their war against Venice — but for 
several years afterwards history records nothing but 
a long series of uninterrupted disasters. The war 
with Venice was carried on to get possession of 
the littoral islands and cities. Venice was shame- 
fully beaten, and the peace-suing ambassadors of 
the proud city of St. Mark had to undergo the 
humiliation of seeing before their very eyes nine- 
teen of their flags torn to pieces in the streets of 
Buda. But the new banners of Venice were soon 
destined to be victoriously planted on the Hunga- 
rian littoral territory, and Sigismund was compelled 
to sign a peace by which the nation lost her sea- 
coast possessions. And while the power of Venice 
was curtailing the country in the south, the richest 
towns in the north were being lost through the reck- 
lessness of Sigismund. In order to extricate himself 
from financial embarrassments he hypothecated to 
Ladislaus, the king of Poland, thirteen of the 
wealthiest cities of the Szepes country, which was 
largely settled by German merchants and tradesmen. 
These places remained hypothecated until the first 
partition of Poland, 1772, when Hungary was re- 
instated in the full possession of the mortgaged 



THE ANJOUS IN HUNGARY. 1 89 

towns. After arranging these affairs the king went 
abroad, where he remained for six years. During 
his" absence the country, owing to the despotic rule 
of Barbara, his queen, became a prey to disorder. 
It would cover pages unprofitably to give a detailed 
account of the private affairs of the wanton queen, 
and, passing over these, we shall accompany her 
royal husband on his journey to the Council of 
Constance. 

The condition of the Church of Rome was at that 
period a most lamentable one. The question of re- 
forms within the Church became from day to day 
more pressing. Wycliffe, the Englishman, had the 
boldness to assume the role of a heretic. John 
Huss, the rector of the university of Prague, soon 
became a zealous propagator of his teachings. The 
majority of the inhabitants of Bohemia embraced 
the new tenets, assuming, after their leader, the 
name of " Hussites." One of the chief objects of 
the Council of Constance — 1414-1418 — was to ex- 
tirpate heresy, and to exterminate its votaries. 
Numerous ecclesiastical and lay lords gathered at 
Constance to advise together under the guidance of 
the emperor-king, who presided. The attending 
Hungarian magnates deemed it due to their fame 
and dignity to indulge in the most extravagant 
luxury. The emperor-king felt constrained to eclipse 
his subjects in sumptuous display on such an occa- 
sion, and, in order to accomplish this, he had to sell 
Brandenburg to Frederick of Hohenzollern, and 
there can be no doubt that through this sale he un- 
wittingly contributed to the future greatness of the 



IQO THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

present imperial dynasty in Germany. We will not 
attempt to describe here the Council of Constance, 
but need only mention that it was the treachery 
and bad faith of Sigismund which caused the tragic 
end and martyrdom of John Huss. His disciples 
vowed vengeance, and Hungary, of all the dominions 
of the emperor-king, was, during many years, most 
exposed to their cruel devastations. 

After an absence of six years, during which Sigis- 
mund had visited Germany, France, Italy, and Eng- 
land, he at length returned to Hungary. He found 
the country unsettled, and menaced on two sides 
by powerful enemies. Having sent his wife, the 
cause of the internal disorders, to prison, he led an 
army against the Turks, who were threatening the 
southern portion of the country. Before describing 
the events of that campaign let us cast a rapid 
glance at the condition of the Moslem world in 
Europe. A dreadful blow had fallen on the Otto- 
man empire in July, 1402. Timur, the Central- 
Asian conqueror, destroyed the Turkish army near 
Angora, and captured the person of the redoubtable 
Bajazet himself. The impaired power of the Otto- 
man empire was still more weakened by the inter- 
necine strife between Bajazet's sons. Mohammed I. 
emerged at last as the victorious sultan, and in his 
person the warlike qualities of his ancestors re- 
appeared once more on the throne of the Osmanlis. 
The rulers of Servia and Moldavia very soon ac- 
knowledged his sovereignty. Hervoja, the Bosnian 
boyar, followed their example. The three captains 
of Sigismund, John Maroty, John Garay, and Paul 



THE AN JO US IN HUNGARY. I9I 

Csupor, marched against the latter. The engage- 
ment resulted in the victory of Hervoja. Csupor 
was taken prisoner, while his fellow-captains sought 
safety in an ignominious flight. Csupor, years ago, 
had scofl[ingly greeted Hervoja, when at the Hun- 
garian court, by bellowing like an ox, and the victor, 
now remembering th,e affront put upon him, revenged 
himself by having the ill-fated captain sewn into an 
ox's skin, and telling him : '' Now thou canst bellow 
as much as thou likest ; thou hast also the shape of 
an ox." He caused him to be thrown into the water, 
where he was drowned. 

Meanwhile Stephen Lazarevitch, the Prince of 
Servia, became weary of the Turkish alliance, and 
with a view to securing to his nephew, George 
Brankovitch, the succession in Servia, he sought the 
aid of Sigismund, offering to surrender to him several 
important fortified places along the Danube for his 
services. The Prince of Servia died in 1428, and 
Sigismund claimed the possession of the places 
promised to him. The Servian commander of 
Galambocz, one of the strongest of these fortresses, 
however, treacherously allowed it to pass into the 
hands of the Turks. It was to re-possess himself of 
this fortress, which he could not permit to remain in 
Moslem hands, that Sigismund marched against the 
enemy. He had nearly succeeded in capturing it, 
when news reached him that Sultan Murad H. was 
approaching, Sigismund did not dare to engage in 
battle with such overpowering numbers, and having 
stipulated for himself and his army free passage, he 
pusillanimously gave up the siege. Yet the Hun- 



192 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

garians were just beginning to cross the Danube, 
when the Turks, breaking faith, attacked them. 
Sigismund himself was in great danger, and he owed 
his escape only to the heroism of Cecilia Rozgonyi, 
the wife of the captain-in-chief, who facilitated his 
flight in a galley steered by herself. This was 
Sigismund's last armed encounter with the Turks, 
and its issue did by no means add to his laurels. 

The remaining years of Sigismund's reign were 
taken up with the organization of the defences of the 
country and with continual warfare against the 
Czech Hussites in the north. Wenceslaus, the king 
of Bohemia, died in 1419, and Sigismund endeavored 
to obtain his brother's crown. The Czechs hated 
the executioner of their beloved spiritual teacher, 
and conceded to Sigismund the Bohemian crown 
only after a hard and protracted struggle. Hungary 
had to suffer for the ambition of her king, for, during 
these struggles, the exasperated Czechs, on more 
than one occasion, laid waste her territories in the 
northwest. Sigismund, however, did not allow him- 
self to be deterred from pursuing his aim. Acting 
upon the principle of divide et regiia^ he very sensibly 
conciliated a portion of the Czechs by granting them 
religious reforms, and whilst the people were desper- 
ately fighting among themselves he succeeded in 
securing the crown of Bohemia. 

Sigismund may be said to have reached the goal 
of all his wishes. He united on his head the crowns 
of imperial Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia. Yet, on 
the whole, he was not a happy man. His wife Bar- 
bara had regained her freedom and was embittering 
the last days of the sickly monarch. This ambitious 



THE AN JO US m HUNGARY. ' 1 93 

woman coveted the crown of Hungary, and in order 
to obtain it she was scheming, first of all, to hinder 
the succession of Albert, the son-in-law of the em- 
peror-king. With this view she entered into nego- 
tiations with Ladislaus III., the king of Poland, the 
purport of which was that he should marry her 
after Sigismund's demise, and thus unite the domin- 
ions of the king of Hungary with Poland. The 
arrangement was nearly concluded when these in- 
trigues were discovered by Sigismund. He deprived 
his wife once more of her liberty, and hastened from 
Bohemia to Hungary to prevail upon the Estates to 
accept Albert's succession, and then to turn his steps 
towards Transylvania to put down the rebellion that 
had broken out there. The peasantry of Transyl- 
vania, having a leaning towards the teachings of 
Huss, were exposed to constant persecutions. They 
were also oppressed by burdensome taxes, and finally, 
goaded on by their unhappy condition, they rose in 
arms against their tyrants. The massacred nobility 
and burning villages bore witness to the exasperation 
of the peasantry. Fate prevented Sigismund from 
either meeting the estates or quelling the Transylva- 
nian rising. He was overtaken by death at Znaym, 
in Moravia, in December, 1437. His dead body and 
the captive queen arrived in Hungary one week later. 
His remains were conveyed from Presburg to Gross- 
wardein to be placed there by the side of his first 
wife, Mary, and at the feet of St. Ladislaus. It is 
rather saddening to reflect that, after a reign of fifty 
years, his funeral procession should have been lighted 
by the glare from the burning villages of Transylvania, 
set on fire by her own peasantry. 



-^^^^M-^^^S.,^ 





CHAPTER IX. 

JOHN HUNYADI (HUNIADES), THE GREAT CHAMPION 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 

1456. 

Very little, if anything, is known of the father of 
John Hunyadi, or of the pedigree of his family ; in- 
deed, the very circumstances of his birth are shroud- 
ed in dim legendary light, and yet he looms up all at 
once in the proud position of governor of Hungary, 
the adored idol of his country, and the admiration 
of all Christian Europe. It was owing to his ex- 
ertions that his family became great, rich, and power- 
ful, but, at the same time, he guarded Hungary 
against the evils of domestic war, and saved her 
from Moslem rule. He served his country in the 
capacity of a brave soldier, an eminent general, and 
a cautious and energetic statesman, lending her the 
aid of his strong arm, his undaunted courage, and 
his clear understanding. 

In his time, during the fifteenth century, through 
all Europe, and especially in Hungary, that man 
was most respected who had earned the repute of a 
distinguished soldier. If any one wished to become 
conspicuous amongst his countrymen he had to be, 
first of all, an able general and a military hero. Ac- 

194 



JOHN HUNYADI. 



195 



cording to the views of that day, only he was looked 
upon as a true man who was a free man, or, in the 
nomenclature of that period, a noble man, but every 
noble was a born soldier, and soldiering was both his 
duty and privilege. Martial merit was recognized 
as the only real merit, and military service as the 
only honorable occupation. By this means every 




HUNYAD CASTLE. 



man had the chance of becoming the possessor of 
land, and of acquiring nobility, for bravery was re- 
warded by the king with a grant of lands, and with 
the rank of a noble. As a consequence wars were 
longed for by many. The common man (or as he 
was then styled, the bondman) hoped to acquire 
land and to be created a noble, the noble to add to 



ig6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

his landed estate, and to rise in rank. The more 
land a noble owned, and the greater the number of 
his bondmen, the larger the number of the soldiers 
he was able to equip, and the greater the military 
power wielded by him, the better his prospects of 
promotion to a higher position in the state, in soci- 
ety, and about the person of his king. The first 
games of childhood were martial games, and the 
first tasks of youth were military tasks. 

Such, no doubt, had also been the early training 
of John Hunyadi ; by such means he rose, acquired 
a large fortune, and was able to support a great 
army. In truth, however, there is no information 
whatever extant as to his early education, for when 
he first entered upon the stage of war, in 1437, he 
was already an accomplished general. In this year 
the Turkish sultan, w^ho was constantly attacking, 
harassing, and laying waste the vassal states of Hun- 
gary, Bosnia, Servia, Wallachia, and Bulgaria, turned 
his arms against Servia. The general of the Hun- 
garian king met the enemy near the fortress of 
Semendria, where the decisive battle was to be fought. 
During this engagement a knight with a coat of 
arms, familiar to no one, made his appearance. A 
black raven, holding a gold ring in his beak, was 
painted on his shield. Never before had they wit- 
nessed fighting as gallant as that of the Raven 
Knight at the head of his small troop. He was 
seen now in one place, now in another, but wherever 
he showed himself the enemy either fled before him 
or was slain. To the Hungarians ft seemed as if the 
god of war himself had descended to fight under 



yon AT HUNYADI. 197 

tneir banners, and they were seized with v/ild enthu- 
siasm. The Turkish general, with the remnant of 
his army, fled in dismay, and from this day forward 
the name of the raven knight continued to be the 
terror of Turkish warriors. This mysterious knight 
was John Hunyadi. To be sure, men like Pongracz, 
Szentmiklossy, Thalloczy, or Marothy, had before 
this day proved themselves heroes in the many 
struggles against the Turks. After this memorable 
battle, however, the splendor of Hunyadi's name 
dimmed the glory of all. With the people, whose 
chief delight was martial exploits, and in whose 
eyes the Turks were the most dreadful enemy of 
their country, his prestige increased from year to 
year. For Hunyadi, like his powerful antagonist 
the Turk, never knew what it was to rest. No other 
enemy was like this one he had to cope with. The 
Turkish state was so organized that it could not ex- 
ist without fresh conquests and incessant wars. The 
Janissaries wanted occupation and glory, the mounted 
Spahis new lands, the immense hordes which 
marched at the distance of a day's walk in advance 
of the Turkish army were hungry after booty, and 
the sultans themselves longed to win fresh con- 
quests and military glory against the infidels, as the 
followers of the cross were styled by them. 

An enemy like this was a most dangerous neighbor. 
It is true that Hungary was divided from the Turkish 
empire by her vassal states, Bulgaria, Wallachia, 
Servia, and Bosnia, but the Turkish sultans already 
looked upon these territories as their own, and were 
constantly organizing inroads into Hungary from 



198 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

them. Hunyadi had passed his early Hfe near the 
border ; and, accustomed to the perpetual fighting 
going on there, he was also familiarized with the 
magnitude of the danger. With an iron will he 
determined to devote his whole strength to the 
struggle against the Turks. By his gallantry he 
gradually acquired the fortune necessary for this 
purpose, for the kings were lavish in granting to 
him again and again large estates as a compensation 
for his bravery. Nor was he wanting in opportuni- 
ties against the Turks, for, having been successively 
created Count of Temes, ban of Szoreny, and vay- 
vode of Transylvania, it became his duty to defend 
the border with the money and army placed in his 
hands. If the Turks appeared at any point on a 
marauding expedition, or to provoke hostilities, 
Hunyadi was quick to meet them at once, and did 
not rest until he had achieved victory. 

In one such expedition, Ishak, the pasha of Semen- 
dria, fared badly. This overbearing Turk, issued 
from the fortress of Semendria, and, having overrun 
the country, left behind him nothing but desolation 
and the tears of widows and orphans. Hunyadi, 
with a small troop, started in his pursuit, and, coming 
up with him, he took away from him the prisoners 
and the booty he had captured, and drove him and 
his army back to the very walls of Semendria. The 
sultan, upon hearing the news of this defeat, at once 
despatched Mezid Bey with an army of 80,000 men 
against Hunyadi. Orders were issued to destroy every 
thing — property and human life alike; neither the 
young nor the old nor the women were to be spared. 



JOHN HUNYADI. 1 99 

Hunyadi was well informed as to the enemy's move- 
ments. He knew that in this campaign the special 
aim would be to kill or capture him, for his person 
stood almost alone in the way of the Sultan's 
conquests and glory. The Turkish commander 
offered, on the eve of the battle, an enormous re- 
ward to the soldier who would succeed in capturing 
Hunyadi. This critical occasion showed not only 
the importance attributed to Hunyadi's person by 
the Turks, but also the great love with which he was 
surrounded and the degree to which he was idolized 
by his soldiers and comrades. One of the latter, 
Simon Kemeny, who knew of the intentions of the 
enemy, urgently begged his leader to exchange with 
him horses and accoutrements. Hunyadi at first 
refused, but finally yielded to Kemeny's entreaties 
and handed him over his military equipments. 

But he built his plan of battle upon this ruse : He 
ordered five hundred distinguished soldiers to be 
stationed near the person of the devoted officer, and 
he himself withdrew with his reserve and took up a 
position in a remoter spot. The following day the 
two armies engaged in battle. Every Turkish warrior 
sought the famous Hungarian hero ; all were eager for 
the glory of capturing and killing him, and anxious 
to secure the prize set on his head. They all knew 
his face — which strikingly resembled that of Simon 
Kemeny — and his accoutrements, which had been 
minutely described to them by their comrades. They 
at once made a rush on Kemeny, the pretended 
Hunyadi. This gallant hero, with his five hundred 
men, stood the brunt of the onslaught with super- 



200 THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 

human courage ; the enemy were literally mowed 
down by their swords, but, at last, they had to 
give way to superior numbers, and their brave 
leader laid down his life on the battle-field. The 
Turkish soldiers precipitated themselves eagerly 
and with shouts of triumph upon his inanimate body, 
when suddenly Hunyadi broke upon them — the real 
and living Hunyadi whom the enemy had already 
thought dead. At this sight, the enemy, who, a few 
moments ago, felt sure, of their victory, were seized 
with a panic, and sought safety in flight. Their 
leader, Mezid Bey himself, and his son lay lifeless, 
with battered skulls, on the field of battle. 

The entire Turkish camp, with immense treasures 
and its military stores, as well as numerous prisoners, 
fell into the hands of the victorious Hungarians. 
Many a brave Hungarian warrior, it is true, had lost 
his life, and the devoted Simon Kemeny had found 
the death he expected, but the country was saved, 
and the Hungarian losses were as nothing compared 
with the losses of the Turks. The devout Hun- 
yadi afterwards caused a chapel to be erected from 
the proceeds of the Turkish booty in memory of his 
martyred comrades. 

The news of the ignominious defeat reached Sul- 
tan Murat at Adrianople ; he was greatly incensed, 
and swore dire vengeance against the Hungarians. 
He summoned before him his brother-in-law, en- 
trusted to his command eighty thousand men, and 
ordered him to invade Hungary, to lay every thing 
waste with fire and steel, and to annihilate Hunyadi 
and his army. The Turkish commander, letting 



JOHN HUNYADI. 201 

loose his Tartars, entered Hungary quite suddenly 
through Wallachia. The frontier is here formed by 
gigantic mountains, and but narrow passes lead from 
one country into the other. Through one, of these 
passes, the Vaskapu (Iron Gate), the Turkish army 
passed into Hungary. The invaders had hardly 
time to rest from their fatigues, when Hunyadi with 
his army appeared before the unsuspecting enemy, 
ready to give battle. Abedin was surprised and dis- 
concerted ; he thought the Hungarians would fly 
before him, and they were facing him. Hunyadi 
entrenched his foot soldiery in a wagon-camp, whilst 
he himself with his horse attacked the Spahis (Turk- 
ish cavalry). After scattering the latter, he turned 
against the Turkish infantry, the Janissaries, in the 
rear, but the attack was only a feigned one. As if 
fearful of being surrounded, he suddenly began to 
retreat with his army to that portion of the valley 
where the wagon-camp was stationed. The Janis- 
saries, leaving their protected positions, started with 
wild exultation in pursuit of the Hungarians. 

Hunyadi, having taken up his position at the for- 
tified place in the narrow valley, directed a side 
attack against the Turkish horse and drove them 
back upon the fighting Janissaries, whose storming 
of the wagon fortress was attended with as little 
success as that of the waves beating against the 
solid rock. The Turkish army could not display its 
strength, and confusion and wild disorder soon seized 
the troops. Their commander, perceiving that it 
was impossible to save his army, mounted his horse 
and galloped away. Fifteen thousand Hungarians 



202 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

were opposed, on that occasion, to eighty thousand 
Turks, inured to war, well trained, and accustomed 
to victory. The Turkish Janissaries, whose impene- 
trable line never broke, were annihilated ; the cav- 
alry, the far-famed Spahis, were scattered ; and the 
whole Turkish army was in part massacred and in 
part put to disorderly flight. The meanest portion 
only saved themselves by running away ; the best of 
the warriors perished, for the Turkish troops were 
by no means lacking in personal courage. The 
principal difference between the opponents was that 
the Turkish army was usually too confident of vic- 
tory^ and was often led by incompetent generals, 
while among the Hungarians discipline prevailed. 
Hunyadi, furthermore, not only gave battle accord- 
ing to plans concerted by his military genius, but 
understood also, during the tumult and confusion of 
the battle, how to execute with his troops rapid and 
precise movements. These qualities had decided 
the present battle, and were also the secret of his 
future triumphs. 

All Europe hailed with joy and admiration the 
splendid victories of the Hungarian arms, for the 
whole Christian world had witnessed with alarm the 
extension of the power of the dreaded Osmanlis. 
Not only Hunyadi himself, but all his companions in 
arms, felt that, in inflicting such heavy losses upon the 
Turks, they were not defending Hungary alone, but 
saving all Christendom fi^om that Turkish rule which 
had exhibited a boundless appetite for continental 
extension. Aware of this state of things, Hunyadi 
initiated a policy exceeding in boldness the one 



JOHN IIUNYADI. 203 

hitherto pursued by him. He appealed to all the 
rulers of Europe — to some personally, to others 
through the king and the pontiff of Rome — to lend 
him their aid, and he declared that, if they re- 
sponded to his appeal, he was ready to begin an 
offensive war against the Turks. 

All Europe received with satisfaction both his 
plan and request, but all he could obtain was gra- 
cious words and fair promises ; aid in any tangible 
shape was flowing in but thinly. The Poles (the 
Hungarian king Uladislaus being also their king) 
sent a tolerably large contingent ; in Germany, 
France, and Bohemia, too, there were many ready 
to enlist in a holy war against the unbelieving Turks, 
as had been formerly done in the time of the cru- 
saders, and these joined Hunyadi's camp. The 
southern vassal states sent also some forces. The 
principal army, however, was still composed of 
Hunyadi's Hungarians, which was joined by the 
king's own troops. They may have numbered alto- 
gether forty thousand men. The king himself joined 
in the offensive campaign (in July, 1443) and placed 
himself at the head of the motley army. His leader- 
ship proved an injury rather than an advantage, for 
the discipline would have been far more perfect in 
the army if Hunyadi in person, with his own men, 
had taken the lead. The Hungarian general, never- 
theless, defeated the Turks in their own country in 
four smaller engagements and in two larger battles. 
When the Hungarian army approached the Balkans 
— the heart of the Turkish empire in Europe — they 
were already wading in snow. They nevertheless 



204 THE SrORY OF HUNGARY, 

marched on, undaunted by the enormous mountains 
and the impracticable and narrow passes. But the 
Turks had already taken up their positions along 
the difficult passes, on the mountain tops, and in the 
passes themselves, in such a manner that they had 
made sure of every advantage. Hunyadi quickly 
perceived that the position of the sultan behind 
such entrenchments and bulwarks was impregnable. 
Beine, therefore, foiled in his desire to aim an offen- 
sive blow at the enemy, he endeavored to entice him 
into the plain. In this he succeeded. As he was 
retreating from the Balkan passes, slowly and cau- 
tiously tracing his way back, the Turkish army 
quickly started in his pursuit. The sultan reasoned 
that the Hungarian army was, by this time, ex- 
hausted with cold, the fatigues, and the extraordi- 
nary exertions, and that it would be an easy matter 
to catch them now in their own trap. But he 
counted without Hunyadi. When the latter thought 
the time had come for it, he turned and faced the 
enemy. He selected a vantage-ground where the 
Turkish army could at no time bring all their forces 
into play, and must therefore offer to the Hungari- 
ans a chance of beating them in detachments. The 
struggle was protracted, for the Turks could afford 
to wait. As soon as one of their generals was de- 
feated, the sultan had him strangled on the spot, and 
despatched in his place another general and another 
army. The contest went desperately on by the 
light of the moon. Every one took part in it ; King 
Uladislaus himself was wounded. The exasperated 
Turks, after their ranks had been broken up, did 



JOHN HUNYADI. 20$ 

not attempt to fly, but perished fighting. The 
commander-in-chief of the sultan's army was taken 
captive. 

The Hungarian army returned in triumph to 
Buda. Close upon their heels followed the sultan's 
envoy, begging for peace. All he now asked for 
was to be let alone in his own country, and he in 
turn would not molest Hungary. This was an im- 
portant concession, for the faith of the sultans had 
heretofore been held to forbid them to enter into a 
parley with, and still less to entreat peace of, the 
infidel Christians. But the sultan had just now a 
special reason for peace. Half of his empire had 
risen in arms against him — the Albanians in Europe 
and Mohammedan rebels in Asia. As usual with 
states based upon violence, the discontented rose on 
all sides at the news of the first lost battle. This 
was the effect of Hunyadi's campaign. 

The terms of peace offered by the sultan were of 
the most flattering and tempting nature. He prom- 
ised a great deal of money, territory, mines, and 
captives. Hunyadi was now in favor of peace ; he felt 
that he must gather strength. Peace was therefore 
concluded, the king swearing by the Gospel and the 
sultan by the Koran. The ambassadors of the sultan 
had hardly left Hungary when Cardinal Julian, the 
pope's nuncio, arrived in the country and declared, 
in the pontiff's name, the oath of Uladislaus, the 
Hungarian king, to be null and void, adjuring him, 
at the same time, by all the saints, to hasten and 
make use of this opportunity to annihilate the Turks, 
and insisting that one so favorable would never 



206 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

occur again. All Europe's eyes were upon them, 
he added, and all Europe wished to take part in the 
struggle. And, indeed, the Christian princes hasten- 
ed to protest against the peace, and offered money 
and soldiers in abundance to continue the war. 

Meanwhile news arrived that the Italian naval 
squadron had appeared in the Turkish waters to 
intercept the sultan's crossing over from Asia to 
Europe. It was urged that now had come the time 
to fall upon the Turkish empire, which was without a 
master. The papal nuncio summoned all his elo- 
quence to prove that the peace concluded with the 
Turk was not valid, for the word given to an unbe- 
liever was not binding, and God did not listen to an 
oath deposited into pagan hands. "All Europe," 
he continued, '* scoffed at this peace, and the honor 
and martial glory of the Hungarian nation will be 
like naught if she persisted in keeping it. It will 
disgrace her heroic name." 

There was no occasion for adding more ; the Hun- 
garians had no wish to be thought cowards, and to 
this they preferred perjury. They enthusiastically 
resolved upon war. Hunyadi alone remained cold; 
he had no faith in big words and promises. But he 
was compelled to obey the commands of his king. 
He collected about 20,000 men, and with these he 
again marched into the Turkish empire. The fa- 
mous European contribution had dwindled down to a 
few hundred soldiers and a few thousand florins, but 
it was hoped that many of the discontented would 
join them on their march. And, indeed, the vayvode 
of Wallachia joined them with about 10,000 men, 



JOHN HUNYADI. 20/ 

but he could not help remarking to the king with 
regard to the forces of Sultan Mura, that the latter 
was in the habit of surrounding himself when on a 
hunting expedition with a retinue more numerous 
than the entire Hungarian army. It was, however, 
too late to think of drawing back. 

And now bad news came crowding in ; it seemed 
as if good fortune had altogether deserted the Hun- 
garians. The Prince of Servia refused to join them. 
The Albanians failed in their attempt to cut their 
way to the Hungarians, and what seemed most in- 
credible of all, the Italian naval squadron, whose 
task it was to have been to hinder the sultan's cross- 
ing over to Europe, had itself carried over the Turk 
for good money. The Hungarians were left alone 
and forsaken in the foreign country. There was 
reason enough now for retreating, and there were 
some who counselled retreat. It was Hunyadi's 
turn now to interfere. He declared that he did not 
fear the Turks under any circumstances, and if they 
had got so far they were bound to engage them in 
battle by beginning the attack themselves. As soon 
as Plunyadi came to the fore, confidence was at once 
restored ; his person inspired the army with courage, 
and they continued their march against the Turks. 
The two opposing armies met near Varna, on the 
lOth of November, 1444. The sultan had pitched 
his tent on the top of a hill, and near it he had the 
document, upon which the treaty of peace was writ- 
ten, hoisted on a pole. He had with him more than 
100,000 men ready for the fray. But the order of 
battle of the Hungarian army was again most ad- 



208 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

mirable, such as could only be suggested by the 
lofty genius of Hunyadi. To every man was as- 
signed his part and place, nor was any exception 
made in this respect in favor of the king. He ob- 
tained a post where no danger could reach him, and 
Hunyadi solemnly engaged him not to leave his 
place until he himself would call upon him to do 
so. 

The battle now commenced. Hunyadi with his 
reserve horse-troop went wherever there was most 
danger, assisting, encouraging, and commanding. 
The first set-to took place between the cavalry. The 
struggle did not last long ; the brilliant Turkish cav- 
alry was put to flight in disorder. At this desperate 
sight the sultan put spurs to his horse, and turning 
its head was about to leave the battle-field, but the 
commanders near him seized the bridle of his horse, 
and menaced him with death if he did not go on 
with the battle. The sultan, taking courage again, 
ordered fresh troops into the fight, and the battle be- 
gan to rage with renewed fury. In the midst of the 
sanguinary contest the two hostile leaders met face 
to face. Karafi Bey, his eyes sparkling, fell upon 
Hunyadi, and lifted his sword, but before he could 
strike a blow he slid from his horse pierced to the 
heart. The fall of their leader was the signal for the 
wild flight of the Turkish horse. 

The Polish banner-bearers, surrounding the king, 
were envious witnesses of Hunyadi's victory, and 
urged Uladislaus, who was hardly able to restrain his 
youthful ardor, to participate in the engagement, by 
representing to him that victory was already assured, 



JOHN HUNYADI. 209 

that he should not leave all the glory to Hunyadi, 
and that he should, at least, draw his sword and 
show himself a hero worthy of the double crown. 

The king, forgetting his promise, accompanied by 
the banner of the country, made straight for the 
Janissaries, who had, as yet, hardly been in the fight. 
Hunyadi immediately saw the king's movement, and 
followed him as swiftly as he could. Upon this the 
king penetrated more deeply still into the ranks of 
the Janissaries, Hunyadi being unable now to cut 
his way to his sovereign. The king's companions 
succumbed one after the other. At last a Janissary 
succeeded in creeping up close to the king'^ horse, 
and striking at the horse's feet with his sword, he 
brought it down. Horse and rider fell, and the king 
was instantly despatched. The mad fray lasted a few 
minutes longer, when suddenly the pale head of the 
king, in his silver helmet, stuck on a pike, became 
visible. At this sight the Hungarian army and their 
leaders lost their senses, and the campaign came to a 
sudden end. The victorious Hungarians became 
fugitives, and Hunyadi himself returned to his home 
a lonely wanderer. The sultan, in surveying the 
bloody battle-field, exclaimed : '' I wish my enemies 
only a victory like this." The Turks were not in a 
condition to pursue the defeated Hungarians. 

The discomfited army crept back to their country, 
bringing with them the news that Hungary was with- 
out a king. The uppermost question now was who 
should be elected king. The plight of Hungary at 
that time was a sorry one, indeed. The king had 
left no children behind him, and yet there was an 



2IO THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

heir to the throne. When Albert of Hapsburg, the 
predecessor of Uladislaus, died, in 1439, ^^^^ widow 
was enceinte, and she afterwards gave birth to a boy. 
The partisans of the late queen caused this her son, 
Ladislaus, to be crowned at once. The great ma- 
jority, however, and Hunyadi with them, wanted 
on the throne a man who would be able to be their 
leader in the struggle against the Turks. The result 
was the election of Uladislaus, the Polish king, in 
1440. The widowed queen with her son repaired to 
the court of the Duke of Austria, and from there she 
caused Hungary to be devastated by the Bohemian, 
John Ziska. 

It was quite natural that after the • death of 
Uladislaus the whole nation should look to the child 
Ladislaus as the future king. But the Austrian duke 
claimed a large sum under the title of the expenses 
of education of the young prince, a sum which the 
Hungarians were neither able nor willing to pay. 
Whilst this matter was being discussed, Hunyadi, 
being the captain-general of the country, was tem- 
porarily entrusted with the conduct of the principal 
affairs of state. Two years later he was elected 
governor of the country, with powers that but little 
differed from those of royalty. 

As governor he deemed it his paramount duty to 
resume hostilities against the Turks. His mind was 
busy again with the plan to which he had devoted 
his life and fortune — namely, to attack the Turks 
and to drive them from Europe. In 1448 the sultan, 
at the head of an army of 150,000 men, invaded 
Albania, a country with which Hungary, owing to 



JOHN HUNYADI. 211 

their community of interests, deeply sympathized. 
Hunyadi thought this an opportune moment to 
carry out his plan. From abroad he received again 
assurances of aid, but in the end they turned out to 
be, as before, empty promises. Putting his trust in 
God and himself, he started with 24,000 men. It 
was his purpose to unite his forces with those of 
Scanderbeg, the commander-in-chief of the Al- 
banians. But as soon as the news of Hunyadi's ad- 
vance reached the sultan, he left the Albanians and 
marched against his old and most implacable enemy. 
He offered .him peace, but Hunyadi replied by draw- 
ing up his army in battle array. The battle was 
fought with great desperation, the fight continuing 
for days, and although the Turkish army outnum- 
bered five times the Hungarians, the strategy of 
Hunyadi rendered the issue doubtful for some time. 
At the last moment, however, it was decided in favor 
of the Turks. Treason had turned the scale ; the 
Wallachian vayvode, losing confidence in the wearied 
troops of Hunyadi, deserted with 8,000 men and 
joined the sultan. When the Hungarians saw this, 
they refused to listen any further to their comman- 
ders, and, scattering, they fled. Hunyadi himself 
escaped with great difficulty only. Whilst wander- 
ing towards his country on foot, unarmed, and 
through impassable roads, he fell into the hands of 
two Turkish marauders. They little knew what a 
distinguished person they had captured, but there 
was no mistake about the golden cross on his breast. 
Luckily for Hunyadi they both coveted the cross 
and began quarrelling over it, and finally fell to fisti- 



212 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

cuffs. During their fight Hunyadi suddenly drew 
the sword of one of them, slaying him with it ; the 
other, on seeing this, took to his heels. He had 
hardly escaped one danger, when another was in 
store for him. On his way he had hired a guide, 
who, instead of taking him to his own country, 
brought him to Brankovitch, the Servian prince, the 
man who, since the campaign of 1443, had been con- 
stantly crossing his plans. The treacherous Servian, 
who was licking now the hands of the Hungarians, 
now of the Turks, entered into negotiations with the 
Turkish sultan concerning Hunyadi's head. The 
latter, however, esteemed, even in his enemy, the 
pure-minded hero, and refused to entertain so base 
an offer. 

Hunyadi returned to Hungary, and hastened to 
forget the injury done to him by the Servian 
prince ; but the Turks he did not forget. In his 
most desperate straits he steadily kept before his 
eyes — the main object of his life — the ruin of the 
Turks. In 1453, the child-king, Ladislaus V., began 
his reign ; but, although Hunyadi then relinquished 
his position as governor of Hungary, he still re- 
mained the captain-general of the country, the com- 
mander-in-chief of the army, and as such he missed 
no opportunity to injure his arch-enemy. 

This same year, 1453, witnessed a most remark- 
able event in the history of Europe. Mohammed 
II., the new sultan, took Constantinople, the capital 
of the Greek empire and the gate of Europe, and 
made it the capital of his empire. ''There is one 
God in heaven, and one Lord on earth, and I am 



JOHN HUN Y AD I. 213 

that Lord ! '* exclaimed the sultan on entering Con- 
stantinople. All Europe trembled ; Hunyadi alone 
remained calm and prepared for war. After a few 
minor engagements, Turks and Hungarians stood 
face to face again near Belgrade in 1456. This for- 
tress was the gate of Hungary, and the great sultan 
wanted to get possession of it. For this purpose he 
determined to make a supreme effort, feeling that 
the seizure of this fortified place would decide the 
fate of generations to come. He led over 150,000 
men under the walls of that famous fortress, and 
hastened to station his ships on the Danube, on 
which Belgrade lies, in order to cut off the communi- 
cation between the Hungarian army and the garri- 
son, and thus to isolate the latter. The Hungarian 
army itself did not number, even now, over 15,000 
men, hardly more than those whom Hunyadi had 
been able to collect by his own exertions. Only this 
time, however, the great captain did not stand alone, 
but received great help from another quarter. A 
monk of magic eloquence, John Capistrano, who was 
sent by the pope to the country to preach a crusade, 
had, by the irresistible power of his appeals, collected 
60,000 crusaders to assist Hunyadi. These men were 
armed with scythes and pole-axes only, and were led 
by the sound of bells instead of words of military 
command ; but their fanaticism was quite equal to 
that of the Mohammedan Turk. 

With an army composed of such warriors Hunyadi 
engaged in the great contest. His first effort was 
directed to the river, in order to relieve the garrison 
of the fortress. After an engagement of five hours. 



214 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

the great naval squadron of the Turks was scattered 
by the small galleys which had been the objects of 
the enemy's ridicule, but which were led to the at- 
tack by fanatic crusaders under the captaincy of 
Hunyadi. This restored the communication of the 
Hungarian army with the Hungarian garrison. Still 
Mohammed looked with scorn at the rabble collected 
on the opposite bank, the leaders of whom were 
largely monks, and he swore an oath that in two 
months' time, he would plant the proud crescent on 
the walls of Buda, the capital of Hungary. For 
eight days and eight nights the Turkish guns roared 
against Belgrade, and on the ninth day Mohammed 
ordered a general assault. The assault was renewed 
three times, and three times were the Turks repulsed. 
At the last moment, when the strength of the be- 
sieged seemed ready to give way, the Hungarian 
commander ordered the fascines soaked with oil and 
pitch, which were piled up in the ditches, to be set 
on fire and to be hurled at the storming men. Con- 
fusion seized the assailants, and each sought safety 
for himself, for he who did not escape met with a 
miserable death in the flames. Meanwhile the de- 
fence was rapidly changing into an attack along the 
whole line ; the crusaders, mad with the excitement 
of the struggle, rushed forward, while Hunyadi 
directed an orderly attack against the Turkish camp. 
The engagement now became general, and the sul- 
tan himself received a wound. Dismayed, he took to 
flight, his troops following. Nothing could keep 
them longer together ; the immense army was scat- 
tered to the winds, leaving behind them, under the 



JOHN HUNYADI. 21 5 

walls of the famous fortress, 40,000 killed and 300 
cannon. 

At that most glorious moment of Hunyadi's life, 
when the Turks were put to flight by the bare men- 
tion of his name, this Christian hero, suddenly and 
without any premonition, breathed his last. He did 
not live to hear the panegyrics and felicitations of 
all Europe, the grateful recognition of his services 
by his own nation. His mighty frame sank under 
the weight of the fatigue of war, and, after a brief 
agony, he expired. His inveterate enemy, the great 
sultan himself, expressed grief at the news of his 
death, pronouncing him to be the ablest general in 
Europe. 

Many there were, however, who rejoiced at his 
death. For, like all great men, he too had enemies 
against whom he was engaged in a life-and-death 
struggle as much as against the Turks. He had his 
envious rivals from the moment he had struggled 
into fame and had acquired a fortune. These men 
cared little to remember that he was indebted for 
both to his talents and courage. Some of the great 
lords, who were able to trace back their pedigrees to 
past centuries, looked upon him, the son of a simple 
noble, as an upstart. When he afterwards became 
captain-general and governor, they refused to obey 
him, but he made them obey by force of his arms. 
They were only silenced, however ; in their inner- 
most hearts they both hated and feared him. Among 
these were Garay, Brankovics, and Czilley, all of them 
connections of the royal house. The latter, Ulric 
Czilley, a wily and base man, who, though a for- 



2l6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

eigner, had pushed himself into the first place near 
the minor King Ladislaus V., was unremitting in his 
intrigues against him. He and his companions made 
the shallow-minded young king believe that Hunyadi 
and his two sons, who were growing into manhood, 
were ambitious of the crown, and, under this pretext, 
but without the king's knowledge, they laid traps for 
him. The fearless hero faced all such base machina- 
tions with the loftiness of a truly martial spirit. 
The secret attacks he met with caution and straight- 
forwardness, and the slanderous insinuation that he 
coveted the throne he refuted by the simplicity of 
his life. Rich enough to have at any moment ten 
thousand men at his back, he was always as modest 
and unselfish as a monk. His detractors reflected 
on his great wealth, forgetting that his entire income 
was spent in armaments against the Turks. 

He lived and died like a true knight, and in Hun- 
garian history he will live forever as their grandest 
hero. If he did not achieve his most ardent wish, 
the expulsion of the Turks from Europe, his will 
always remain the merit of having made the arms of 
Hungary respected and feared by the Turks, and they 
no longer dared to look upon his country as an easy 
conquest. Over sixty years elapsed before a Turkish 
sultan again ventured to threaten Belgrade. 



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CHAPTER X. 

KING MATTHIAS. 

I458-149O. 

Matthias, the son of Hunyadi, was indebted for 
his elevation to the throne to the prestige of his 
father, who was the idol of the nation, but it was 
through his own genius alone that he strengthened 
the throne and became famous, mighty, and, per- 
haps, the greatest king of whom his country could 
boast. He excelled alike as a soldier and leader of 
armies, as a statesman and diplomatist, and as a man 
delighting in science and art. In those warlike days 
it would not have been possible for him to become 
conspicuous among his contemporaries and to be- 
come a powerful king, unless he had, in the first 
place, shown ability as a soldier. Matthias inherited 
the courage and soldierly qualities of his great father, 
and, following in his footsteps, became the foremost 
general of his age, combining rare personal gallantry 
with a remarkable capacity for military organization. 
The splendid example of his father had been before 
his eyes since his most tender years ; it was his father 
who initiated him into the skilful handling of arms 
and into the secrets of strategy, and both his father 
and his famous mother, Elizabeth Szilagyi, vied with 
each other in inuring his body and mind to the strug- 

217 



2l8 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

gles and dangers of which, since his earliest childhood, 
so large a share had been his lot. 

Trained amid warlike games, he very soon had to 
face serious struggles, for the men who had looked 
upon John Hunyadi with envy and jealousy ex- 
tended their ill feeling to his two handsome boys, 
Matthias and his elder brother, Ladislaus. No 
secret was made before the youths of the dangers 
that surrounded them ; they were taught rather 
to brave than to avoid them. Ladislaus, less fortu- 
nate than his brother, soon fell a victim to the 
machinations directed against both. Ladislaus was 
threatened with assassination in his own castle at the 
hands of Czilley, who was a foreigner and the guar- 
dian and friend of the boy-king. His men, attracted 
by the noise of the scufHe which ensued, rushed in 
and killed the would-be murderer. The king vowed 
that he would not molest Ladislaus for this act of 
self-defence, but he had him afterwards seized, 
thrown into prison, and executed without warrant 
of law or judicial sentence. This was the work 
of the enemies of the house of Hunyadi, but very 
soon they had to pay the penalty of their iniquity. 
The mass of the nation was roused, and upon the 
sudden death of Ladislaus V. in his other kingdom, 
amongst the Czechs, Matthias, the surviving son of 
Hunyadi, was proclaimed king of Hungary. 

Although but fifteen years old when he ascend- 
ed the throne, he both knew and was accustomed to 
the dangers that lurked around him, and it was not 
long before he proved that he could cope with them. 
Indeed his natural disposition and early training 



220 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

rather led him to seek danger. From his earHest 
childhood he worshipped heroes, and nothing de- 
lighted him more than the ballads, legends, and 
heroic songs glorifying the gallant deeds and won- 
derful performances of such leaders of men, as Attila, 
Alexander the Great, Roland, the French Knight, or 
his own father. He could listen to these stories all 
day long, forgetting both hunger and thirst. As he 
grew to manhood and became king, he had oppor- 
tunity himself to perform the great deeds he had 
admired in others. His personal courage knew no 
limits, and his reckless daring frequently confounded 
his own men, who, not without cause, feared for his 
life. 

There was one remarkable trait which particularly 
characterized his valorous deeds as well as his other 
acts, and that was his love of justice. To this might 
be traced, in most cases, his boldest actions. Nothing 
afforded him greater pleasure than to unmask the 
hypocrite, and to shame the bully and braggart. On 
occasions like these he would often risk his life to 
make the truth triumph. Many an instance of this 
kind is related of him. On one occasion, a German 
knight, by the name of Holubar, came to Buda, the 
capital of Hungary. He paraded everywhere his 
gigantic frame and extraordinary strength, and was 
indeed thought to be invincible in the tournaments 
where mounted knights rushed at each other, Tance 
in hand, for he invariably precipitated his adversary 
to the ground. King Matthias, anxious to measure 
arms with the big-bodied German, challenged him. 
The latter declined the challenge, fearing lest he 



KING MATTHIAS. 221 

might do some harm to the king, and be in conse- 
quence exposed to ill treatment. But the king in- 
sisted, and Holubar finally consented. He was de- 
termined, however, to slide from his saddle at the 
slightest thrust from the king. Somehow the king 
heard of his determination, and immediately caused 
him to be summoned to his presence. He there 
vowed, by all the saints, that if he perceived Holu- 
bar doing this, he would have him executed, and at 
the same time made him swear that he would fight 
with him as if he were the knight's mortal enemy. 
The contest took place in the presence of many 
thousands, and many doubted the king's success, 
comparing the German giant with the middle-sized 
Matthias. The two combatants rushed at each other 
with tremendous thrusts ; the steeled muscles of the 
king proved superior to the heavy bulk of his ad- 
versary, who reeled from his horse, struck by a heavy 
blow on the forehead, and lay with his arm broken 
and fainting on the ground. The king, too, stag- 
gered by his adversary's thrust, had to slide off the 
saddle holding on by his horse's bridle. The king, 
having humiliated the bragging foreigner, sent him 
away with presents of horses, splendid dresses, and a 
large purse of money. This happened shortly after 
his elevation to the throne, showing that he then 
already was a practical master in the use of arms. 
Matthias was of middle size, but the trunk of his 
body tall in comparison with his legs, which were 
rather short, and it was owing to this freak of nature 
that when on horseback he always overtopped his 
fellow-riders. He was broad-shouldered, deep-chest- 



222 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

ed, and his limbs wore as hardened as steel. On this 
solid frame rested a massive yet finely cut head, and 
his eyes were as sharp as those of the falcon. He 
was able to concentrate his strength and will on one 
point, never losing his self-confidence, never waver- 
ing, and full of endurance, lie nc\-er vacillated, and- 
surc of the present and of the coming moment, was 
always ready for action. He possessed an even na- 
ture, and was equally unruffled and stead)' in single 
combat and on the battle-field, in his private and his 
public life. He at all times produced the impression 
of a man full of power and determination, and of a 
mind of large culture and man}'-sidedness. 

We shall now speak of hin\ as the soldier, for he 
will appear before us during most of his career in 
wars and battles. He waged war. on several occa- 
sions, against his neighbors on the north, the Poles 
and Czechs, defeating them often, and finally becom- 
ing the king of the Czechs. On the south he fought 
numerous smaller battles, but almost without cessa- 
tion, against the sultan. Ills most inveterate enemy, 
however, was Frederic, the envious and avaricious 
emperor of Germany, his western neighbor, who in- 
cessantly harassed him. Matthias was engaged in four 
great \\ars against him, and finally captured, in 1485, 
Frederic's capital, Vienna, compelling the German 
emperor to go begging from convent to convent, 
seated o\\ a wagon drawn by oxen. 

Hungary was, at that period, beset by many 
troubles and enemies, but her name was honored and 
respected everywhere. The sword was in everybody's 
hand, and it almost seemed as if men were born 



KING MATTHIAS. 223 

with it. It was the prevaiHng characteristic of 
luiropean society, in that ac^e, tliat alj, men went 
about armed, and were ready to draw their swords 
on the least provocation, and in Hungary especially, 
where fighting against the neighbors was constantly 
going on, this fashion was more prevalent than else- 
where. King Matthias was well aware that the 
rash, passionate, hot-headed, free, and soldier-nation 
he ruled over would but reluctantly submit to re- 
straint. He was, nevertheless, determined to intro- 
duce discipline amongst his soldiers. It was an ex- 
ceedingly difficult task, considering that the armies 
of Europe in general were, in those days, undisci- 
plined, loosely organized, composed of motley ele- 
ments, and not subjected to uniform military train- 
ing. But Matthias was not at a loss for a remedy, 
being a man to inquire, to observe, to learn from 
others, and to put to use what he had learned. Me 
remembered the example of his father, who had 
drilled his own soldiers, the lessons derived from the 
study of ancient Roman generalship and from con- 
versations with the most renowned contemporary 
captains, and finally he did not spurn to profit by 
the example of his enemies, the Turks. The Turk- 
ish Janissaries, the most famous foot-soldiery in the 
world, were well-disciplined troops, forming a perma- 
nent and standing nucleus for the Turkish forces. 

A similar standing body of soldiers was now or- 
ganized by King Matthias. He employed his genius 
in their training, kept them together, supported them 
by his own means, and established discipline amongst 
them by the force of his character. This was the 



224 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

famous black troop, one of the corner-stones of his 
power, and, next to the French, the earliest standing 
army in Europe. These soldiers he attached to his 
person by the strongest ties. He lavishly bestowed 
upon them both pay and booty, and made them shar- 
ers of his triumphs. But it was, above all, the rare 
charm of his personal qualities which won for him their 
affections. They were not only faithfully devoted to 
him during his life, but fondly cherished his memory 
after his death. He himself trained and instructed 
them, sparing neither time nor trouble to accomplish 
his purpose. He set them a bright example in all sol- 
dierly duties. He shared with his soldiers all the hard- 
ships of war ; suffered with them cold, hunger, and 
thirst, and the fatigues of forced marches. He did 
not shrink from the most exposed position on the 
battle-field whenever his presence was needed. At 
sieges, he was often seen walking to and fro amidst 
a hail of bullets and arrows, a recklessness to which 
numerous lesser and larger wounds on his body 
abundantly bore witness. He paid particular atten- 
tion to the ferreting out of the weak points of fort- 
resses. He employed clever spies for that purpose, 
paying them liberally, but never placed implicit 
trust in them, for he himself was a cleverer spy than 
any of them. It particularly gratified him to hood- 
wink an enemy by discovering his plans, even at the 
risk of his life, and thus frustrating them. 

In 1475 he laid siege to Shabatz, situated on the 
southern border of the country. He was exceeding- 
ly anxious to take the place, but knowing nothing 
about its defences, he undertook in person the spy- 



KING MATTHIAS. 225 

ing out of the plan of the fortifications. At night 
he got into a boat in company with a trusty attend- 
ant and an oarsman, who was to row him around the 
walls. They were hardly half way, when the Turks 
discovered them, and hailed them with a volley of 
shots, which, in spite of the darkness, struck his at- 
tendant. The king, defying death, contined his in- 
vestigations, undaunted by the heavy fire, until he 
had finished the inspection of the fortress. The 
bold venture, moreover, v/as not thrown away, for 
shortly after the place was captured. Some of his 
expeditions were more amusing, but not less danger- 
ous. 

At the siege of Vienna, in 1485, he frequently 
walked all around the walls, unattended, or, at most, 
followed by a page. On one occasion, he stole 
into the city in disguise. Dressed in the shabby 
dress of a country boor, with a basket containing 
butter and eggs on his back, he traversed the city 
in every direction, selling his wares, and at the same 
time spying out the condition of the fortifications. 
He lounged about in the market-place, listening to 
what the people talked about, and what they were 
planning. He made his escape in safety, and, making 
good use of what he had seen and heard, the city 
shortly afterward fell into his hands. 

Upon another occasion, his forces being stationed 
opposite the Turkish camp, he assumed the disguise 
of a Turk, and mixing with the country people who 
entered the camp to sell their provisions, he suc- 
ceeded in passing in with them. Once there, he 
had the hardihood to seek out the sultan's tent, and, 



226 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

settling down near it, he went on selling provisions 
and spying all day long. Upon his return to the 
Hungarian camp, he sent, on the following day, a 
letter to the sultan, conceived in these terms : 
" Thou guardest thy camp badly, emperor, and thou 
art thyself badly guarded. For yesterday I sat, 
even from morn until night, near thy tent, selling 
provisions. And lest thou doubtest my words, I 
will tell thee now what was served on thy table." 
The sultan, upon reading this letter, became 
frightened, and, together with his army, noiselessly 
left the neighborhood. 

The king was particularly rigorous in the ordering 
of the sentry service. He used to rise at night and 
inspect the sentinels, to see if they were awake, 
and in their places. He was especially active during 
sieges, being constantly on his feet. He was never 
satisfied with reports alone, but was bound to look 
after every thing in person. Everybody marvelled at 
his incessant watchfulness. He awoke at the slight- 
est sound, at the merest whisper. At the same 
time, he was famed for his sound slumbers amidst 
the din of battle. Upon such occasions, the shouts 
of the men, the roaring of the cannon, and the re- 
ports of the musketry seemed to lull him to sleep. 

He was self-willed when it came to action. He 
would, it is true, call a council of war, and listen to 
the opinions of his captains, but in the end he near- 
ly always acted on his own views. He was admir- 
able in distinguishing idle reports from the truth, 
being as indefatigable and clear-headed in his in- 
vestigations as he was quick and fertile in the con- 



228 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

certing of plans. During the intervals of rest, he 
liked to mingle with his soldiets. He would joke 
and be full of mischief with them, and, especially in 
his younger days, would often eat and drink with 
them. He always had a kind word for the men in 
the ranks, just as, in civil life, he was anxious to 
impress people that he held the great lord, the poor 
noble, and the peasant in equal esteem, as long as 
they proved themselves worthy of it. This was 
truly a rare princely virtue in his age. Always 
gracious and affable, he loved to discover merit, and 
to reward it. He sought out the wounded, often 
even on the battle-field, inquired into their circum- 
stances, comforted them in their troubles, and re- 
assured and nursed those who were low in spirits. 

He made it a point that his soldiers should be 
regularly and punctually paid, and rather than get 
into arrears with their pay, he would borrow or levy 
heavy taxes. On one occasion, however, during the 
Czech wars, he was completely out of funds. He 
had been just pondering how to raise money for his 
soldiers, when he was called upon by his captains to 
join them in a game of dice. The playing was kept 
up all night, and the king hardly threw any other 
numbers than those indicated by him beforehand. 
It was easy for him, with fortune thus in his favor, 
to win 10,000 florins, a sum which he at once dis- 
tributed amongst his soldiers in the morning. 

Full of sympathy for his soldiers, and princely in 
his rewards, he yet rigidly exacted discipline, es- 
pecially in times of peril ; and well might he do so, 
as he himself was amongst the first to submit to it. 



KING MATTHIAS. 229 

A comrade to his soldiers during the hours of rest, 
he became a most severe commander in war, and 
during the military exercises and drills. Disregard 
of discipline and disobedience were punished with 
death. At the tournaments, he often challenged (as 
was customary in Europe during the middle ages) 
his captains to combat, rigorously enjoining upon 
them not to spare his person, but the very per- 
son whom he thus distinguished was mercilessly 
punished if he offended against military discipline. 
At a tournament, he met in single combat, in sight 
of the whole country, Szvela, one of his captains ; 
yet, but a short time afterwards, he sent both him 
and his companions to the gallows for breaches of 
discipline and mutinous conduct. He was, however, 
never cruel to his soldiers, and readily forgave offen- 
ces if he was convinced that they sprang, not from 
ill-will, but from awkwardness and lack of experi- 
ence. 

During the campaign against Frederic, the em- 
peror of Germany, he sent against him one of 
his generals by the name of Simon Nagy. Nagy, 
otherwise a brave captain, was defeated, and re- 
turned home filled with shame at his disgrace. The 
king received him with a cheerful countenance, 
well knowing that the gallant captain had done all 
he could, and sent him back again at the head of an 
army to resume the campaign. The brave soldier, 
animated by his king's confidence and magnanimity, 
achieved such a triumphant victory that from that 
time Frederic never again ventured to send an 
army against Matthias. He was happy in the selec- 



230 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

tion of his generals, and did not object to raising a 
man of merit, although of low degree, to the most 
exalted position. Kinizsy, his most distinguished 
captain, a man of mean fortunes, owed his elevation 
to the king. This man had been, in his youth, a 
plain miller-boy, endowed by nature with gigantic 
strength. As a miller, he was capable of lifting with 
one hand the heaviest mill-stone, and, on becoming 
a leader of armies, he rushed upon his enemy with 
a ponderous sword in each hand. Such was his 
enoromous strength that, at a great feast held on the 
battle-field to celebrate his most renowned victory, 
near Kenyermezo, he, the triumphant Kinizsy him- 
self, stood up before the merry-making crowd, and, 
holding the dead body of a full-grown Turk in his 
right hand, another in his left, and a third between 
his teeth, tripped the national dance. Captains like 
these contributed to the military prestige of the 
king, but he owed still more to his own royal quali- 
ties. 

The impression made by these qualities upon his 
soldiers remained unchanged, for he continually 
demonstrated his soldierly virtues, his affability, his 
liberality, and generosity by deeds. Anecdotes in 
which the king always played a pleasant part went 
all the time from mouth to mouth. An old 
chronicler says of him : *' Never was prince more 
beloved and respected by his people and his soldiers 
than he, but, at the same time, everybody feared 
him as they would a savage lion." At the sound of 
the drums and the blowing of the horns, every one 
stood instantly ready for the engagement, and will- 



KING MATTHIAS, 23 1 

ing to meet death for his king. During the mili- 
tary drills, every eye was fixed on his person, and 
every ear listened to the sound of his voice only ; he 
alone was the magnet that attracted and riveted the 
general attention of his soldiers. In this respect, 
Hungary stood alone amongst the nations of Europe, 
and it was with men like these only that he was en- 
abled to achieve his wonderfully rapid and well- 
planned strategetic movements. At a time when 
the armies of Europe were generally noted for their 
unwieldiness, this mobility constituted one of the 
chief advantages of the king's army, and to it he 
owed his most conspicuous military achievements. 

The king, in his turn, placed the fullest confidence 
in his soldiers. In the camp and on the battle-field, 
as we have seen, he went about unattended, or, at 
the most, accompanied by one or two of his men. 
He- bestowed no care upon the guarding of his per- 
son, although at that period immense sums were 
lavished by the rulers to insure their personal safety 
by surrounding themselves with a body-guard com- 
posed of picked men. He did not feel the necessity 
of imitating his royal neighbors in this particular; 
the love and respect of his soldiers proved a more 
powerful protection than any troop of body-guards 
he could have organized. 

In summing up all we have said about Matthias as 
a soldier, we obtain an interesting, attractive, and by 
no means commonplace picture of him. Severe to 
others, he was no less severe to himself ; active, en- 
ergetic, enterprising, and crafty, he was most happy 
when actively engaged. Versed in military matters, 



232 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

he at times exhibited a knowledge of miHtary science 
which reminds us of a modern tactician. 

The general historian, as well as the chronicler of 
his own country, will always assign to him a con- 
spicuous place, not only as a ruler and statesman 
distinguished in his own age, but also as an illustri- 
ous example for the world of royal power, dignity, 
and magnanimity. He -entertained a high opinion 
of the functions of a ruler. Being ambitious and 
proud, he liked to give to the world the spectacle of 
a throne occupied by a king dignified, powerful, and 
splendid, who, nevertheless, paid tribute to all that 
was noble and virtuous in humanity. His mind was 
always busy with great affairs and bold schemes, and 
he was unwearying in seeking the means of accom- 
plishing them. He never shrank from any task, nor 
was any task too trifling for him to engage in if there 
was a pressing occasion for it. He was as inde- 
fatigable in his study attending to diplomatic affairs 
as on the battle-field, unflagging in his activity, and 
thoroughly informed about every thing. 

There was a great deal of work to be done, for 
Matthias took a large part in the political mazes of 
Europe. He kept up connections with all Europe, 
with a view to maintaining and increasing his power 
■ — a system which was at that time pursued by no 
other European ruler. The intercourse with the 
foreign countries was now of a friendly now of a 
hostile nature, but it never ceased. As soon as the 
campaign was at an end on the batttle-field, the dip- 
lomatic contest was resumed and continued in the 
study. As the king grew older and more powerful, 



KING MATTHIAS. 233 

his troubles with the neighbors increased, for, owing 
to the enhanced weight of his word, more and more 
people sought him out and entered into relations with 
him. Foreign ambassadors were continually either 
arriving or departing from his court, while his own 
emissaries were either leaving on, or returning from, 
missions of lesser or greater importance concerning 
affairs of state or family. Upon such occasions, es- 
pecially in the case of missions of greater importance, 
he felt the whole dignity of the royal position and 
spared neither pains nor money to surround it with 
stateliness. The ordinary embassies usually num- 
bered from fifty to sixty members ; the more brilliant 
embassies were frequently attended by as many as 
a hundred servants. 

In 1487 Matthias sent a splendid embassy to the 
court of Charles VIII., king of France, a description 
of which will give an idea of the pomp displayed by 
the Hungarian king. He caused three hundred horses 
of uniform color to be selected, on each of which sat 
a youth clad in purple velvet. These youths all 
wore long gold chains on their sides, and upon enter- 
ing a city each placed a braidwork mounted with 
pearls on his head. The contemporary chronicles 
speak with ecstasy of the beauty of the men, of the 
splendor of their dress, and of the rich harnesses of 
their horses, embossed with precious stones. The 
presents sent to the French king on that occasion, 
consisting of costly horses, horses' trappings, splen- 
did robes, vessels and ornaments of gold and silver, 
amounted to a sum of no less than half a million 
of florins of the currency of our days. 



234 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

The embassy sent by Matthias in 1476 to the king 
of Naples — whose daughter, Beatrice, became sub- 
sequently his wife — exceeded the last named in 
numbers, if not in splendor. It was composed of 
church and lay magnates, scholars, prelates, soldiers 
of high rank, nobles, knights, relatives of the king, 
his intimates and councillors. These again were at- 
tended by their secretaries, chamberlains, pages, 
grooms and forerunners. It was a wonderfully 
variegated sight, rich in coloring, this mounted 
army of men dressed in costly robes of various and 
glaring colors. The great lords were dressed from 
head to foot in gala costumes, brilliant with gold 
and silver and jewels, the nobles and knights in cos- 
tumes of colored velvet, the pages and courtiers in 
colored satin — all of them mounted on high-mettled 
steeds. In their train followed the numerous jesters 
or fools, whom it was customary at that time for 
every great lord to have by his side, to make sport, 
or to tell the truth ; musicians, especially, according 
to the fashion of the day, trumpeters, drummers, 
and harpists ; and, finally, players and buffoons, all 
of them attired and bedizened in motley, parti- 
colored and tawdry costumes. 

The horses' keep alone cost this embassy a million 
of florins, present currency. But not satisfied with 
carrying on their backs half of the current wealth of 
the country they came to represent, the members of 
the embassy had brought with them, besides, vessels 
of gold and silver, and jewelry of all kind, to be dis- 
tributed as presents, or to be paraded -about. Os- 
tentation was the fashion of the day ; objects of 



KING MATTHIAS. 235 

luxury were still a sort of novelty, and those posses- 
sing them were anxious to have the pleasure of their 
display. There was another feature about the pa- 
geant of this mission which made it almost unique ; 
and with which Matthias created the greatest sensa- 
tion. This was a band of Turkish prisoners of high 
rank, clad in costly caftans with golden turbans on 
their heads, who preceded the brilliant Hungarian 
procession upon their entering the Italian cities. 
These prisoners had just been captured by the king 
near Shabatz, and they were to serve as an evidence 
of Hungarian prowess. At that time half Europe 
stood in awe of the powerful Turks, particularly the 
Italians, who, although excelling in art and science, 
were wretched and pusillanimous soldiers. Both 
Matthias and his father, John Hunyadi, were known 
to the Italians as the most powerful and successful 
foes of the dreaded Turks, and the prestige of the 
names of these two warriors won greater respect for 
the embassy than all the wealth and luxury dis- 
played by it. 

Brilliant as were the embassies sent by Matthias 
to foreign courts, he was no less gratified by the ar- 
rival of missions to his own, which were looked upon 
as a sort of holiday event. The king himself was 
inclined to be liberal if he wished to do honor to 
any one. There were, besides, gathered about his 
person a motley crowd of Hungarian, German, and 
Czech magnates, prelates and nobles, attentive to 
every command of his. Then there were the court 
attendants amounting to many hundreds, and all 
these persons required but a nod from the king to 



236 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

devote themselves to the preparation of a brilliant 
reception. They were quick to don their sumptuous 
and costly dresses, they brandished their weapons 
inlaid with precious stones, they pranced on their 
steeds caparisoned in colored silk and velvet, and, 
attended by an army of courtiers and servants, clad 
in garments representing all the colors of the rain- 
bow, the procession went out amid the blast of horns, 
to meet the ambassador and to escort him to the 
court. In 1487, John Valentini, the envoy from the 
court of Ferrara, in Italy, and in 1488, Melchior 
Russ, the Swiss envoy, were honored by receptions 
of this kind. In December, 1479, John Anagarini, 
the papal cardinal ambassador, was received with 
the greatest imaginable pomp, by the king in person, 
who, attended by his church and lay dignitaries, 
came out to meet him at three o'clock in the morn- 
ing. Thousands of wax torches shed a light as 
broad as day over the dark and wintry scene. Three 
days after the arrival of the cardinal the solemn 
audience took place. The king appeared in his 
royal robes, surrounded by the highest dignitaries of 
the court, and by the church and lay magnates, all 
sumptuously dressed. The king well understood the 
art of astonishing and dazzling his visitors by the 
dignity of his presence and by the display of lavish 
pomp. 

Upon one occasion he was staying at Visegrad, his 
splendid palace a short distance from Buda, when 
the sultan's ambassador arrived. It gratified the 
pride of Matthias to dazzle the eyes of the Turkish 
envoy, who was accustomed to the brilliant surround- 






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238 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

ings of the sultan, with the splendor of his own 
court. Visegrad, which was called by the contempo- 
raries *' an earthly paradise," fully suited his pur- 
pose. The envoy and his train were brought from 
their city quarters to the royal castle, m order to be 
admitted to the solemn audience with the king. As 
the gates of the castle were thrown open a gorgeous 
spectacle met their eyes. The king stood on an em- 
inence of one of his hanging gardens. Around him, 
above and below him, were grouped the great of 
the land and his courtiers, clad in silk, velvet, gold, 
and silver robes, with shining arms. At this unex- 
pected sight the envoy was struck with awe. In 
confusion he drew nearer, but as his eyes met the 
proud look of the king he became so embarrassed 
that he lost the command of his voice, and was only 
able to stammer out, after a pause: ''The padishah 
greets you, the padishah greets you." The king, 
perceiving his painful hesitation, had him led back 
to his quarters. After the lapse of a few days he 
was conducted again into the king's presence, who, 
after having bestowed upon the envoy rich presents, 
sent him back to his master with the proud message 
to '' send another time an ambassador who, at least, 
can speak." 

Of such a nature were the audiences granted to 
foreign envoys. The audiences granted to his own 
subjects lacked, of course, the pomp and pageant of 
the former, but the king was particularly careful and 
painstaking in the treatment of the matters thus 
brought before him. This was more especially the 
case during the beginning of his reign. His first 



KING MATTHIAS. 239 

wife, the daughter of the Czech king, whom he had 
married in 1458, died a few years afterwards, leaving 
him a widower, and the ceremonial of the court, in 
the absence of a queen, admitted of an unrestrained 
intercourse ^ith his people. But he married again 
in 1476 the daughter of the king of Naples, Princess 
Beatrice. With her presence Italian etiquette and 
formality began to prevail in the royal court, and 
free access to the king's person became more and 
naore difficult. In his youth the business of his 
doorkeepers was but scant, for the doors stood wide 
open for the petitioners, who were kindly received 
by the young king. Nor was the number of these 
small, for the king's fame as a friend to justice had 
spread all over the country. A whole army of peti- 
tioners, from the great lord to the simple peasant, 
frequently besieged the doors of the audience hall, 
for Matthias was known to treat them all with uni- 
form affability. He attentively listened to and 
duly weighed the petitions and complaints of all. 
This was a matter of great importance at a time 
when a privileged class, the nobles, were the masters 
of the property of the numerous peasantry, and fre- 
quently held control even of their lives. The laws 
at that period were both loose and defective, and 
the judges could, with impunity, either misinterpret 
or distort their meaning to the injury of the suitor. 
Besides, in that age nearly every noble had a train 
amounting to a small army, and the temptation 
proved frequently irresistible to be his own judge 
and to treat the weaker party as he pleased. Such 
was then the condition of things all over Europe. 



240 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

The most efficacious remedy for these evils was a 
king just and strong, who was not loth to inquire 
into abuses and was ready to lend the weight of 
his kingly command and of armed force against the 
recalcitrant. Matthias was a ruler equal to such a 
task. Many excellent laws were introduced during 
his reign, and he had both the sense of justice and 
the power to enforce them. The ver}' knowledge of 
the existence of such a final appeal greatly improved 
the administration of justice, for every one was aware 
that the king was a man of his word, and that his 
threats were not empty utterances, but were sure to 
be followed by swift and severe punishment. He 
was as quick in disposing of the matters submitted 
to him as he was careful in their consideration. If. 
he ever delayed affairs they were mostly connected 
with important questions of state, diplomacy, and 
finances, requiring caution in their management. 
On such occasions he was master in the art of keep- 
ing silent, and might have excited the envy of the 
craftiest Italian diplomatist by his wariness. His mind 
was not easily open to extraneous influences ; he 
liked to get at the bottom of all complaints and ac- 
cusations by personal investigation. He brought 
into the management of civil affairs the habits ex- 
hibited by him on the battle-field ; he was always 
inspecting and investigating. It was a matter of 
frequent occurrence with the king to ^o among the 
people in disguise in order to study their characters 
and dispositions, to learn ' their complaints and 
troubles, and, if possible, to give at once a helping- 
hand. During these expeditions he strayed unknown 



KING MATTHIAS. 24 1 

into the villages, exposing himself frequently to the 
overbearing treatment of a village judge, a landed 
noble, or a constable, and even to occasional blows, 
but if he afterwards got hold of the guilty parties he 
showed them on his part no mercy. In his disguise 
he was indifferent to the scoffs and gibes levelled at 
him ; he rather enjoyed the incongruous and comical 
plights he often found himself in, but at the same 
time he was apt to give and to take a joke. Of 
course the king always laughed last, when the dis- 
graced culprits, after being punished, ruefully slunk 
away. He was, as a general thing, very fond of 
good-natured intrigues, and liked to season even 
graver matters with a bit of pleasantry. 

To the secret denunciations of eavesdroppers the 
king, unlike many of his royal contemporaries, never 
listened, preferring to trust to his own eyes and ears 
only. This manly straightforwardness inspired all 
his actions, and was instrumental in causing him 
to arrive at the truth and to do justice, and obtained 
for him among the people, even in his lifetime, the 
name of ^'^ the just." The memory of his fame for 
justice has survived to this day in the current 
popular saying: '' King Matthias is dead, justice has 
fled ! " Although as a soldier and statesman crafty 
and full of expedients, and even loving disguise in 
contact with his people, he never was treacherous 
and deceitful. Poisoning and assassination did not 
enter into his catalogue of expedients as it did into 
the policy and practice of his contemporary, the 
French king, Louis XL, or the Italian princes, the 
Estes, Sforzas, the Borgias, and the popes them- 



242 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

selves, who employed both as a favorite means for 
accomplishing political objects. All unclean means 
were repugnant to his frank and knightly nature, as 
was evinced by the following instance. While he was 
engaged in war, in 1463, against George Podiebrad, 
the Czech king, he was approached by a man who 
offered to take George's life in armed combat for a 
reward of five thousand florins. The king, knowing 
the difHculties of the enterprise, at once consented, 
promising even a larger amount in case of success. 
This man, after lurking for a long while about the 
person of King George, despaired of being able to 
carr>' out his fell design, for the king was surrounded 
by the finest soldiers of the period, and to attack 
him, under those circumstances, would have been 
equivalent to forfeiting his own life. He therefore 
proposed to King Matthias to remove the Czech 
king by poison. The king indignantly refused to 
profit by the assassin's offer, proudly exclaiming: 
"We are in the habit of fighting with arms and not 
with poison ! " At the same time he sent a message 
to the Czech king putting him on his guard against 
the attempt to take his life by poison, and caution- 
ing him not to partake of any food or drink unless it 
was first tested by one of his trusty men. 

With views like these it was natural that King 
Matthias should not be accessible to any fear of 
poison or assassination. It was secretly intimated 
to him at one time that his courtiers intended mix- 
ing poison with his food. Upon hearing this he ex- 
claimed : " Let no king ruling justly and lawfully 
fear the poison and assassin's dagger of his subjects." 



KING MATTHIAS, 243 

His capacity for government was particularly shown 
in the right selection and thorough appreciation of 
men, and in the independence which he always main- 
tained. This trait of character became at once evi- 
dent on his ascent to the throne. Being only fif- 
teen years of age he was deemed too young for the 
burden of government, and a governor and state- 
councillors were placed by his side. But he felt 
equal to the duties of his royal office, and deter- 
mined to take the reins of government in his own 
hands. In this scheme, however, he saw both his 
friends and his enemies arrayed against him. The 
former, the adherents of old Hunyadi, to whose ser- 
vices he owed his throne, wished to superintend his 
education, to guard him against dangers, and to 
maintain at the same time their influence over him. 
His enemies, on the other hand, true to the instincts 
of their inveterate hostility to the Hunyadi family, 
after having first opposed his aspirations to the 
throne and afterwards intrigued against him, were 
glad of an opportunity to balk him in his wishes, 
and therefore they now sided against him, and soon 
after openly declared for Frederic, the German em- 
peror. 

The position of the young king was an exceed- 
ingly critical one ; his foreign enemies, too, the 
Turks, Germans, and Czechs, began open opposition 
and, what was most discouraging of all, the treasury 
was empty. But he surprised everybody by the 
independence and circumspect conduct with which 
he met both friends and foes, and also the difficul- 
ties threatening from abroad. His astute questions 



244 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

and ready replies in conversation were the theme 
of universal admiration. It was thought that, being 
a youth, he would busy himself with empty trifles, 
and give little thought to his royal responsibilities. 
His partisans had hoped to be called upon to in- 
struct him in the art of government, whilst his ene- 
mies had anticipated that, unmindful of his kingly 
duties, he would very soon be ruined. But he dis- 
appointed both. In the council chamber he listened 
attentively when any of the lords spoke, but as soon 
as their views diverged and threatened to degenerate 
into a heated discussion, it was he, the youth, whom 
they had met to advise, who admonished them to be 
calm and to agree. His enemies saw that the youth 
was thoroughly conscious of the exaltedness of his 
position, which placed him above his adherents as 
well as his enemies, and they now tried every means 
to create dissensions between him and his partisans. 
In this they failed, for the king was on his guard. 
Knowing his difficult position, he took pains to con- 
ciliate his friends. In the treatment of them he was 
both determined and smooth. In conversation he 
first ascertained the views of those to whom he 
spoke, and then shaped his own remarks accordingly. 
He had the talent of persuading his antagonists 
without seeming to do so, and of getting them to 
share his views, and as he was quick to discover the 
opinions of others, he was not liable to being im- 
posed upon. By slow degrees all opposition to him 
died out and both friend and foe were silenced. 

After disposing of his domestic antagonists, he 
turned his attention to his enemies abroad, and, by 



KING MATTHIAS. 245 

dint of an active mind, knowledge of men, polished 
manner, and generosity, where it was needed, he 
soon succeeded in strengthening his throne against 
all enemies. One by one, the proud princes and oli- 
garchs, who had only reluctantly and disdainfully 
accepted the sovereignty of the upstart, were con- 
ciliated by his royal qualities, and under the rule of 
Matthias, the son of Hunyadi, Hungary secured a 
wider influence and a higher degree of power than 
she had ever attained beneath the sceptres of the 
descendants of the ancient kings. 

An account has been previously given of the 
splendor which the king's embassies displayed 
abroad, and we may add that Matthias was the 
wealthiest and most luxurious ruler in all Europe. 
He had enormous wealth at his disposal, composed 
in part of his own private fortune, and in part of the 
royal revenues. At that time there was generally 
no distinction made between the revenues of the 
king and those of the state. The king disposed of 
all the sums flowing into the royal treasury, whether 
derived from the state taxes or from any other 
sources. King Matthias was quite proficient in the 
art of turning to the fullest use these sources of 
income, and of adding fresh ones, in case of need. 
He introduced a more punctual and rigorous admin- 
istration of the finances with most admirable results. 
He was himself also the possessor of a vast private 
fortune, inherited from his father. His domains ex- 
tended for many miles, and he was the owner of mines 
of gold and silver, of great productiveness, in the rich- 
est mineral region of the country. None of his sub- 



246 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

jects could compare with him as to the extent of 
their private estates, although there were many 
amongst the church and lay magnates who could 
boast of immense wealth. 

In his reign the royal revenues increased upon an 
unprecedented scale. The aggregate annual income 
of the Hungarian treasury amounted under King 
Ladislaus V. to only about 120,000 florins. Under 
Matthias it increased, on an average, tenfold. His 
yearly income very soon exceeded one million, and 
not unfrequently reached even two million florins, 
and this at a period when the French king, who was 
supposed to be the richest sovereign, was unable to 
make his income reach one million. It is true Mat- 
thias stood always in need of a great deal of money 
to carry out his vast schemes, his soldiers and wars 
swallowing up enormous sums ; while it may be said) 
he was also prone to indulge in all the luxuries 
of life. 

The time had passed when men's whole lives were 
divided between war and prayer only. Until now 
these had been the essential characteristics of the 
middle ages. But all this was suddenly changed ; 
people awoke to the consciousness of their wealth, 
and there were several countries in Europe offering a 
long list of varied enjoyments fit to tempt the most 
fastidious. The arts, painting, sculpture, and skilful 
working in precious metals, as well as the sciences, 
began to flourish ; and people began to read books, 
books written by hand in elaborate manuscripts and 
richly ornamented with gold and silver and the 
most varied illuminated work. The classic authors 



KING MATTHIAS. 247 

of ancient Greece and Rome — long lost sight of — 
had been ■ rediscovered, and scattered memorials of 
ancient art came to light, and were cherished by the 
finders with the fresh delight of childhood enjoying 
new playthings. 

In this movement Italy occupied the front rank. 
From his early youth Matthias was drawn by all the 
fibres of his heart towards the awakening culture, the 
motto of which was to enjoy the beautiful. How 
thoroughly he entered into the spirit of the rising 
glory of the new civilization, is best shown by the 
fact that his Italian contemporaries praised him to 
the skies as the whole-souled patron of science and 
art. In the magnificence and the splendor with 
which he surrounded himself, Matthias certainly ex- 
ceeded all his contemporaries, not even excepting 
the Italian princes, who were famous for their sump- 
tuousness and their appreciation of works of art, 
and of whom Matthias had, undoubtedly, learned a 
good deal. The example set by the king influenced 
his subjects, the chief prelates of the church, who 
had obtained immense endowments from the first 
kings of Hungary, and the proud and rich great 
lords. But none of them could approach the king 
in magnificence or in refined luxury. His court was 
the gathering place of scholars and artists not only 
from Hungary and Italy but from all Europe. To 
them he assigned the highest places in the state, 
in the church, and in the schools. From these 
scholars he selected his chancellors and vice-chan- 
cellors, his treasurers and sub-treasurers, the royal 
councillors, his son's tutor, men employed to read to 



248 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

him, his librarians, court historiographers and secre- 
taries, all of whom were munificently rewarded for 
their services. 

Nor was it necessary for a scholar to have a fixed 
position at court in order to secure a rich income ; 
his very presence at court was supposed to give him 
a valid title to a compensation. Theologians, philoso- 
phers, poets, orators, jurists, physicians, and astrono- 
mers came to admire the renowned court, and re- 
mained there to add to its brilliancy, to amuse the 
king, and to be the recipients of his munificence. 
These men were treated by the king as his friends 
and companions and led a comfortable, and, fre- 
quently, a luxurious life. They had their abundant 
share in the good cheer of the table, and in the pas- 
times and honors. The frequent discussions of sci- 
entific and literary questions,, which arose in such 
a circle, produced, especially when peaceful seasons 
intervened for a time, a busy scholarly life at court, 
of which the king, who was fond of taking, part in 
the conversations, was the bright centre. He was 
himself proficient in the lore of his age. It is true 
that his youthful education had not been completed, 
for he had been left an orphan at a tender age, and 
had soon been compelled to exchange the games of 
youth for the cares of government, but his great 
talents, his quickness, and the keen interest he took 
in every thing, greatly contributed to make up for 
any deficiency in precision of knowledge. He had a 
retentive memory and rarely forgot what he heard in 
conversation, and probably a large part of what he 
learned came in this way. It was also the fashion at 



KING MATTHIAS. 249 

that time for scholars to prolong their discussions, 
after the fashion of the Greek gymnasiums, from 
morn until night, and to appoint special meetings 
for special subjects. The subject under discussion 
was pursued everywhere — at the table, during the 
sports, in the reception room, the garden, and the 
fields. The subjects were principally classical. Some- 
times lectures were delivered in the presence of the 
king or queen, as in the instance of Bonafini, who 
visited the court in 1487. In order to get better 
acquainted with him and to present him to the 
court, the king, who subsequently appointed him 
his court historiographer, ordered him to deliver a 
lecture at his palace, in Vienna, where he then hap- 
pened to hold his court. The whole court, together 
with the foreign ambassadors, appeared on this inter- 
esting occasion. At the conclusion of the lecture 
the writings of Bonafini were brought in and dis- 
tributed amongst the chief prelates and the mag- 
nates. 

The court dinners afforded favorable opportunities 
for scholarly discussions and conversations. A great 
number of guests had a permanent invitation to the 
king's table. Such were his near relatives, soldiers 
of high rank, dignitaries of Church and State, foreign 
ambassadors, and, especially, the scholars residing at 
his court. In an atmosphere like this it was quite 
natural that the discourse should take a lively turn, 
and include in its range both serious and amusing 
subjects. The king himself enjoyed a world-wide 
fame for his ready wit and attractive talk. He 
liked to propound riddles to his learned friends, 



250 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

and at times would give them a great deal of trouble 
by his cleverly-contrived oracular questions, particu- 
larly if he wished to confound some braggart. He 
delighted in disputes, in which he was seldom 
worsted, because he kept his temper to the last. 
But in most cases the discussion was begun by his 
guests — the king only joining in afterwards, and very 
frequently giving the decision. Some of his puns 
and anecdotes are remembered to this day. The 
theme of one of these was decidedly of a convivial 
nature. The discourse ran on eating, and the ques- 
tion was mooted as to which was the best dish. The 
king quoted the Hungarian proverb: ''Nothing is 
worse than cheese " {^Habere nihil est pejus caseo).^ 
This, of course, was denied by many, who main- 
tained that cucumbers, apricots, and many varieties 
of fish were far worse than cheese. Evey one was 
amused when the king explained the double mean- 
ing of the saying that ''Nothing is worse than 
cheese" being equivalent to " Cheese is better than 
nothing." It happened, however, often enough that 
grave scientific propositions or Scriptural themes 
were under discussion, and, on such occasions, the 
king would send to his library for books calculated 
to support the soundness of his statements or argu- 
ment. 

This library was the king's chief glory and pride. 
It contained on his accession to the throne but a few 
volumes, but in the course of time it so increased 
in the number of books as well as their value, that it 
brought to the king even greater fame than his suc- 
cesses on the battle-field — not only in the age he 



KING MATTHIAS. 2^\ 

lived in, but during the ages that followed. Over 
a hundred specimens of those books are still in ex- 
istence, and from these we can form an adequate 
idea of its magnificence and richness. The library 
was in the castle of Buda, and the place assigned 
to it comprised two large halls, provided with win- 
dows of artistically stained glass, opening into each 
other. The entrance consisted of a semicircular hall 
commanding a magnificent view of the Danube. Both 
halls were provided with rich furniture. One of them 
contained the king's couch, covered with tapestry em- 
broidered with pearls, upon which he spent his leisure 
hours reading. Tripod-shaped chairs covered with 
carpet were placed about, recalling the Delphian 
Apollo. Richly-carved shelves ran along the walls 
and were curtained with purple-velvet tapestry, inter- 
woven with gold. It would be difficult to describe 
properly the magnificence of the books themselves. 
They were all written on white vellum and bound in 
colored skins, ornamented with rose-diamonds and 
precious stones and with the king's portrait or his 
arms. The pages are illuminated with miniature 
paintings and ornaments, vying with each other in 
excellence, and the work of some of the most fa- 
mous illuminators of the age. At the time of the 
king's death there were over io,ooo such volumes in 
the library. 

The king permanently employed at his court thirty 
transcribers and book-painters, and also gave occupa- 
tion to Florentine and Venetian copyists and paint- 
ers, who sent the volumes when finished to Buda. 
Although the art of printing had been already in- 



252 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

vented, yet its productions appeared so primitive 
when compared with these splendid works of art, that 
the collectors preferred having their books written 
and painted by hand. It was, to be sure, much more 
expensive. King Matthias spent over thirty thou- 
sand florins annually on his library, a sum equivalent 
in present currency to considerably over half a 
million of florins. He lavished larger sums even on 
architects, painters, sculptors, carvers, and gold- 
smiths. A whole army of artists were kept busy at 
his court, especially after his second marriage. Dur- 
ing the first years of his reign he was content with 
the edifices and art memorials inherited from his 
ancestors, but the arrival of the new queen entirely 
changed the old modes of life. The habits of life 
which had been familiar in Italy long ago, with 
brilliancy, good taste, and wit in their train, were 
now domesticated on the banks of the Danube. The 
royal bride was a child of the sunny clime of Naples, 
a city which was one of the first to foster the new 
civilization. King Matthias had both the ambition 
and the ability to effect such changes in the royal 
residence, before the arrival of his bride, as would 
make her feel at home in Buda. Long before the 
new queen was to come, Buda presented a busy 
scene. The royal palace was enlarged and embel- 
lished. Its court-yards were beautified by bronze 
statues and sculptured marble fountains, and the 
ancient plastering gave way to porphyry and marble 
columns. The sides of the staircases were ornamen- 
ted with frescoes, and from the niches statues of an- 
tique style peeped at the passer-by. Costly new 



KING MATTHIAS. 253 

tapestry covered the walls, and splendid carpets 
were spread on the floor of the wide vestibules, 
stately halls, and roomy chambers, which were filled 
with sumptuous furniture. The walls were hung 
with paintings representing heroic events or themes 
from ancient history or from the Scriptures. Modern 
carved furniture took the place of the old pieces, 
and every thing seemed to breathe a new life and to 
be rejuvenated. 

The vaults gave up their old treasures, and new 
ones were added to the collections. Immense buffets 
were groaning under the weight of silver and gold, 
while antique gems, statuettes, and groups of vases 
were displayed on small tables and in sideboards with 
glass doors. The palace became a very museum of 
exquisite objects of art. We can picture to our- 
selves the vast main hall of the castle, with its pecu- 
liar mediaeval splendor and brilliancy, in which the 
marriage took place in December, 1476. The walls 
of the hall were tapestried with silk interwoven with 
gold, and strewn with pearls and precious stones, 
and over the table of the bridal pair a tapestry of 
sheer gold came flowing down from the ceiling. In 
the centre of the hall, in front of the king's table, 
stood a buffet with four faces, each side containing 
eight shelves loaded down with enormous silver 
pitchers, cans, goblets, tankards, amphores, and 
glasses of every description. On this buffet, alone, 
there were over five hundred vessels, besides two 
unicorns, which ornamented the lowest shelf, and 
which weighed seven hundred marks of silver. A 
gigantic fountain of silver of artistic design, in the 



254 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

centre of the hall, spouted fiery wines. It was so 
high that a tall man could hardly reach its top. 
Near the fountain was a bread-basket of solid silver. 
Further on, silver casks were suspended from the 
ceiling dispensing various wines. The hall contained 
eight more tables, and by each stood a buffet 
weighed down by gold and silver vessels. Over nine 
hundred vessels and plate of all kinds were arrayed 
onthe shelves of these buffets without being used. 
The vessels and plate on the table of the royal couple 
were all of pure and massive gold. Nor were the 
other palaces or summer residences, in which the 
court dwelt, inferior in splendor. The permanent 
seat of the court was the castle of Buda, but it 
was frequently shifted to Visegrad, Tata, Presburg, 
and Vienna, everywhere displaying the same pomp 
and sumptuousness. These royal residences ap- 
peared like real fairy castles, with their hanging 
gardens, fountains, fish-ponds, aviaries, game-parks, 
small pleasure-houses, arbors, and statues. Visegrad, 
became especially famous. One of the papal legates, 
a man of taste and education, and a great lord, used 
to sumptuous living, speaks of Visegrad, in a com- 
munication to the Pope, as an earthly paradise 
created anew by the hands of King Matthias. 

Within this brilliant network of royal palaces pul- 
sated the busy court life, with a frequent exhibition 
of exceptional gayeties and splendid feasts. The 
court was always thronged with the relatives of the 
king, Avith captains of the highest rank, and with 
hundreds of courtiers, from the chancellor down to 
the humble attendant, and great lords and high 



KING MATTHIAS. 



255 



prelates, with their courtly trains, gathered around 
the king, hoping for advancement of one kind 
or other. The court was also a favorite resort for 
foreign diplomatists, who came for the purpose of 
settling questions relating to politics, church, or fam- 
ily concerns, and delivering messages of respect and 
homage to the king, whose strong arm was able to re- 




JELLACHICH SQUARE, AGRAM. 

strain and check the Turks, the Germans, and the rov- 
ing bands of marauders. By degrees the Hungarian 
court took on a European, or cosmopolitan air, becom- 
ing more and more refined, gaining also the repute 
of being a seat of classical learning and culture. 
There was both compliment and truth in the remark 
made to King Matthias by his antagonist, Uladis- 



256 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

laus, the Czech king, at one of the brilliant feasts 
given by the former: ''Your Majesty, it is difficult 
to triumph over a king who is the possessor of so 
much treasure." 

It was a great misfortune that Matthias died 
without leaving a son to succeed him, for all the 
accumulated splendor and culture vanished with the 
king who had introduced and developed them. It 
was at the zenith of his glorious career, while he 
was pondering on far-reaching plans for the future, 
that death surprised him. On Palm Sunday of the 
year 1490 he attended divine service, and, on re- 
turning from church, he was suddenly seized with 
extreme lassitude. He at once called for figs. 
They were brought, but on finding them mouldy, 
he angrily rejected them. Soon after he was over- 
come by dizziness, and a fit of an apoplectic char- 
acter deprived him of the power of speech and 
memor}^. He expired on the 6th of April, after an 
illness prolonged for two days. 




CHAPTER XI. 

THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE, AND THE 
DISASTROUS BATTLE OF MOHACS. 

We are now approaching one of the darkest pages 
in the history of Hungary. The nation which but 
thirty-five years before had occupied a command- 
ing position in the world, had, within that short 
space of time, sunk so low as to become merely a 
bone of contention for foreign princes. The con- 
cluding act of that sad era was the calamitous bat- 
tle fought on the field of Mohacs, where were ex- 
piated the many national sins which had brought 
about this sorrowful state of things. 

The period following the death of the great king 
was marked by feeble rulers ; by hierarchical chiefs, 
unmindful of their duties ; by an oligarchy acknowl- 
edging no restraints ; by a military organization rot- 
ten to the core ; and by discontented subjects. So 
rapidly did the fame of the nation decline that we 
find Erasmus of Rotterdam envying their king, 
Louis, the possession, not of his kingdom, but of 
an eminent teacher (Jacob Piso) then living there. 
The power of the king was even at a lower ebb than 
that of the nation. We find, for instance, John 
Szapolyai (or Zapolya), the head of the oligarchy, dar- 

257 



258 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

ing to attack King Uladislaus at the latter's own 
palace at Buda, in order to force from him the hand 
of Anna, his daughter. King Louis, the successor 
of Uladislaus, was told to his face by Thomas 
Bakacs, one of his councillors, at a meeting of the 
National Assembly, that, unless he acted according 
to the wishes of his councillors, and listened to their 
advice, they would drive him from the country, 
and elect another king in his place. These inci- 
dents clearly denote the character of the rulers, and 
of the leading men of the nation, whose province it 
was to defend the country against an enemy which 
the great Hunyadis themselves had hardly been able 
to withstand, namely, the Turkish power, and the 
ruinous effects of their misrule became evident soon 
enough. In rapid succession followed one loss of 
territory after another, coupled with loss of prestige 
abroad, and civil strife within, and shortly after- 
wards came the crowning disgrace of the Turkish 
yoke. It is but right to add that this melancholy 
period was not quite barren of good men, who both 
knew and strove to do their duty, and it will be a 
grateful task to make honorable mention of these 
noteworthy exceptions. 

The partisans of four hostile candidates met on 
the 17th of May, 1490, on the field of Rakos, for the 
purpose of electing a king of Hungary. The Na- 
tional Assembly, at that period, greatly resembled 
the popular meetings held by the conquering Hun- 
garians under the Arpads. They gathered on horse- 
back, numbering many thousands, on some exten- 
sive plain, taking counsel with each other, or, rather, 



THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE, 259 

listening to the utterances of their party leaders. 
These assemblies continued their so-called delibera- 
tions at times for many weeks, and their attendance 
entailed no little expense to those taking part. Many 
of them came with a large retinue of servants, and it 
frequently happened that the poorer members, the 
so-called middle, running short in provisions and 
money, were compelled to leave for their homes be- 
fore the deliberations were concluded. This was 
precisely what happened on the present occasion. 
The powerful magnates purposely wasted time by 
delaying the deliberations, and thus compelled the 
smaller gentry to withdraw. Before leaving, how- 
ever, these last elected sixty members from their 
number, who were to remain as representatives, but 
it was of no avail, for their party was defeated, ow- 
ing to the withdrawal of such large numbers. This 
time the stratagem of the oligarchy proved more suc- 
cessful than at the former election, when, as we have 
seen, the impatient smaller gentry, who were greatly 
in the majority, succeeded in electing their candi- 
date, Matthias Hunyadi. 

Of the several candidates, John Corvinus, the son 
of King Matthias, had few adherents and many ene- 
mies. It was accounted a crime in him that he was 
not descended from a queenly mother. Beatrice, the 
widowed queen, was especially opposed to his elec- 
tion. She could not bear the idea of her husband's 
son ascending the throne. She flattered herself, be- 
sides, with the hope of being able to retain her regal 
position by the election of a prince who would make 
her his queen. With this view she became the parti- 



260 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

sail of Maximilian, the son of the emperor of Germany, 
and advanced his interests with the passionate vehe- 
mence characteristic of the ItaHan blood which ran 
in her veins. Her partiality for the imperial prince, 
however, soon gave way to feelings of disdain, upon 
being addressed by him, in one of his letters, as his 
'* dear mother," and she transferred her affections to 
Ladislaus (styled by the Hungarians, Uladislaus), 
king of Bohemia. Her new favorite was descended, 
through the female line, from the Arpads. The 
wealthy and influential magnates were also on his 
side, but with them the fact chiefly weighed in his 
favor that he was understood to be a kind-hearted, 
gentle, and feeble prince, whom it would be easy 
for them to govern. Both Bathory and the oligarchy 
wanted no king but a royal tool. Albert, the brother 
of Uladislaus, was the fourth aspirant for royal 
honors. 

The States-General not being able to agree upon 
any one of the candidates, they at last resolved that 
he who should obtain the vote of Szapolyai, governor 
of Vienna, should become king. This decision greatly 
elated the party of John Corvinus, for as soon as 
they learned that the election of their candidate de- 
pended upon Szapolyai's decision, they felt assured 
of his triumph. They could expect no less of the 
man who, from having been twenty years ago a com- 
mon trooper — at Visegrad — had been raised to his 
present exalted position by King Matthias. Szapol- 
yai received in Vienna the deputation which had 
come to invite him to elect the king. In the con- 
sciousness of his power, the proud upstart lifted up 



THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 261 

his little boy, who afterwards became king of Hun- 
gary, and placing him upon his knee, said : " Wert 
thou, my boy, but that tall, I would make thee king 
of Hungary." This unscrupulous man was not in- 
clined to obey a master, and, knowing that he him- 
self had no chance of royalty, he preferred a weak 
king, such as he believed Uladislaus to be, and, in 
consideration of a large reward, he sold to him the 
throne. 

The result of the election greatly disappointed and 
surprised the middle classes. John Corvinus him- 
self was at first at a loss how to act, but finally de- 
termined to retire to the southern part of the country 
and to take with him the crown of St. Stephen, 
which was in his hands. Six thousand men ready 
to do battle for his cause accompanied him, and an 
occasion for the display of their zeal soon presented 
itself through the treachery of Stephen Bathory and 
Paul Kinizsy. These faithless favorites of the late 
King Matthias had promised him, on his deathbed, 
to stand by his son, and now, instead of redeeming 
their sacred obligation, they turned traitors to the 
cause they had vowed to defend. They were the 
first to assail the son they had promised to sup- 
port. They came up with him in the county of 
Tolna, scattered his troops, and not only took from 
him the crown, but robbed him also of his personal 
treasures. John Corvinus himself became afterward 
reconciled to the new order of things, and, at the 
coronation, it was he who presented the crown to 
his more fortunate rival. A deputation was sent to 
Uladislaus, to invite him to the throne of Hungary. 



262 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

He received them most graciously, kissing each of 
them in turn, and crjang with joy. In the month of 
August the newly elected king made his triumphal 
entry into Buda, accompanied by a gayly dressed 
cavalcade, and no one could have anticipated that 
the brilliant pageantry displayed on that occasion 
would be followed so soon by a series of humiliations 
terminating in a national tragedy. 

The remaining rival candidates, however, were not 
disposed to consider their cause as lost. Each of 
them wanted his share of the kingdom, which was 
now become an easy prey to its neighbors, and the 
borders of Hungar}^ on the east and west were sim- 
ultaneously crossed by enemies. A few months had 
hardly elapsed since the death of ^latthias, the great 
king, and Albert, Duke of Poland, brother to Uladis- 
laus, was already laying waste the country to the 
east as far as Erlau (Eger), while the horsemen of 
Maximilian were tramping at Stuhlweissenburg over 
the grave of Matthias, and making booty of his 
treasures. Uladislaus remained inactive in the face 
of these outrages committed by Maximilian. He 
finally concluded a most humiliating peace i^which 
to him seemed advantageous), by the terms of which 
all the former conquests of Matthias were to revert 
to Maximilian. The true patriots blushed at the 
news of the disgraceful treaty, and all the comfort 
they could obtain from the king was his favorite 
ejaculation, " Dobzse, dobzse." (It is all well, it is 
all well.) 

Whilst the country was pursuing its downward 
course, the Czech attendants of the king were inces- 



THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 263 

sant in their clamors against poor Hungary. They 
complained that if they did not wish to starve they 
would soon have to leave the country. The king 
himself had not money enough at his disposal to 
provide for the ordinary expenses of the royal house- 
hold. And yet the taxes were as high, and even 
higher, than during the reign of Matthias ; nay, the 
chronicles of the time tell us that the people were 
better off under that Matthias who arbitrarily im- 
posed taxes, than now under Uladislaus. In truth, 
the many burdens which were now weighing down 
the people were owing to the desire of many in high 
places to enrich themselves. The disorders of the 
time afforded a rare opportunity of doing so with 
impunity. It happened, though, at times, that the 
mismanagement of such greedy men would leak out, 
as in the case of Lukacs, bishop of Csanad, and Sig- 
ismund Hampr, bishop of Fiinfkirchen (Pecs), who 
were both treasurers of the realm, and whose fraudu- 
lent transactions were discovered. But the king- was 
too weak to visit their crimes with condign punish- 
ment, and amongst the great of the land none were 
disposed to throw the first stone at the criminals. 
The impotence of the king caused the decHne of the 
national strength, the ruin of the finances, and, as a 
natural consequence, the complete disorganization of 
the military institutions. 

In this connection we have to record a strange 
encounter which took place in 1492 in the vicinity 
of Halas, in the county of Pesth. Paul Kinizsy, the 
terror of the Turks, the general who had grown gray 
on victorious battle-fields, met there, in hostile array. 



264 THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 

the army he himself had formerly commanded, the 
famous " Black Guard " of Matthias. This very 
army, with their brave old leader, had a few months 
earlier repulsed the Turks near Szoreny. After this 
victory the soldiers demanded the pay which had 
long been in arrears. As usual on such occasions, 
tumults and disorders broke out in consequence of 
this failure to keep faith with the troops. The wis- 
dom of the Hungarian National Assembly knew no 
better remedy than to instruct Kinizsy to march 
against the exasperated men. The old general 
obeyed orders. Seven thousand men were massa- 
cred, and the remainder, flying to Austria, dragged 
out their weary lives as robbers, constantly at v/ar 
with the law. This cruel and impolitic measure de- 
prived the nation, at a time when she was preparing 
for the life-and-death struggle against the formidable 
power of the Turks, of one of her main supports, in 
destroying that army which alone could have saved 
her. For Kinizsy, the former miller-boy, this was 
the last campaign, for very soon after he was stricken 
with paralysis and deprived of the power of speech. 
His contemporaries saw in this a punishment decreed 
by Providence for the part he had played on that 
bloody occasion. 

The better part of the nation soon grew restless 
under this state of things, and a party arose which 
was hostile to the king. Stephen Verboczy was the 
leader of the new party. He was a thorough patriot 
and a skilled jurist, well versed in legislation. He 
was highly esteemed by the middle class, in whom 
he saw the only element which would restore to his 



THE PERIOD OF NA TIONAL DECLINE. 265 

country the universal respect she formerly enjoyed. 
This party aspired to the government of the land, 
and their choice of a ruler fell on Stephen Szapolyai, 
the son of John Szapolyai. If Stephen had not 
been, in 1490, still a child, his father would then 
have made him king. That he should become 
king was the highest ambition of his mother Anna, 
Duchess of Teschen, a woman more ambitious even 
than her son, and of whom it is said that she invari- 
ably concluded her daily devotions with a special 
prayer to God, asking that she might be permitted 
to live to see her son ascend the Hungarian throne. 
Szapolyai himself did not consider it an arduous 
task to accomplish this, for he argued that it was a 
precedent in his favor that Matthias, who was of no 
more exalted origin than himself, had become king. 
His partisans first tried to attain their end by mar- 
riage, and with this view Szapolyai asked of Uladis- 
laus the hand of the young Duchess Anna. Uladis- 
laus refused to accede to his request, and sought pro- 
tection against the vaulting ambition of the national 
candidate in an alliance with the emperor Maxi- 
milian. The idea of a treaty of marriage between 
the two reigning dynasties was broached. The 
national party answered by convoking the National 
Assembly on the field of Rakos and passing the 
important law that, in case of the extinction of the 
male branch of the dynasty, they would elect a 
native king only. In the meanwhile Szapolyai re- 
newed his wooing, and he was all the more confident 
of accomplishing his object, as Uladislaus was then 
seriously sick and still remained without any male 



266 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

issue. But Uladislaus could not be moved to recon- 
sider his refusal. He told Szapolyai that he trusted 
to God that he would recover his health, and that a 
male child might yet be born to him. Nor was he 
disappointed in his hopes. He regained his health, 
and shortly afterwards his queen bore him a boy 
who reigned, at a subsequent date, under the title of 
Louis n. 

Uladislaus now perceived the bearing of the Rakos 
resolution and, in consequence, entered into a new 
treaty with Maximilian. Under its terms Ferdinand, 
a grandson of Maximilian, was to marry Uladislaus' 
daughter Anna, whilst another grandchild of Maxi- 
milian, Mary, was betrothed to Louis, the boy just 
born. By virtue of this treaty Ferdinand, Archduke 
of Austria, took possession of the throne of Hungary 
after the fatal day of Mohacs. This new alliance, 
however, did not deter Szapolyai from his bold pur- 
pose. Twice again he tried to gain Anna's iMnd, 
forcing his way into the presence of Uladislaus, but it 
was all in vain. His partisans now began to medi- 
tate the policy pursued by them later on, namely, 
to resort to Turkish friendship for assistance. The 
present state of things had become so intolerable, 
that the national party recoiled from no measures, 
however extreme, to bring about a change. One 
day a wicked hand sped two balls into the palace of 
Uladislaus ; the king escaped, but to this day the 
suspicion of the foul deed rests on the adherents of 
Szapolyai. 

The desperate contentions of the two parties gave 
frequent rise to lawlessness and stormy scenes. The 



THE PERIOD OF NA TIONAL DECLINE. 267 

nobility laid waste each other's estates and often even 
took unlawful possession of them. In this way many 
a castle which John Corvinus had inherited from his 
father passed at that time into the hands of Szapolyai. 
Duke Ujlaky ventured even to molest the royal do- 
mains, and upon being called to account for this by 
the king, Ujlaky disdainfully styled him an ox. The 
offended king, in order to avenge this affront, sent an 
army against him under the lead of Bertalan Dragfy, 
the vayvode of Transylvania, with the message that 
the king's second horn was now growing, and that 
henceforth the king would fight his unruly subjects 
with two horns. Szapolyai, the palatine of the king- 
dom, offered to intercede ; the intercession, however, 
being nothing but a cloak to incite the people to 
rebellion against Uladislaus, the latter was compelled 
to yield, and to pardon Ujlaky. A most disgraceful 
brawl, such as is usually witnessed only amongst the 
drunken rabble, took place in the very presence of 
the king in the royal council-chamber. George Szal- 
kan, the primate of Hungary, allowed himself to be 
carried away, during a heated discussion with Chris- 
topher Frangepan, to such an extent as to seize the 
latter by the beard, whereupon he was struck in the 
face by Frangepan. The king, by personally inter- 
fering, put an end to these most unparliamentary pro- 
ceedings. 

A dangerous movement was at this time gaining 
strength throughout Europe. The peasantry, weary 
of the servitude in which they were held, resorted to 
arms against their former oppressors. In Hungary, 
especially, this movement assumed ominous propor- 



268 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

tions. The rebellion broke out in 15 14, and was com- 
monly called either the Kurucz rebellion, from the 
fact that those who took part in it were originally- 
intended to be soldiers of the cross (cruciferi), or, 
after the name of their leader, the Dozsa rebelion. 

Julius II., one of the most distinguished popes, died 
at Rome in 15 13. Amongst the aspirants to the 
papal see we find a Hungarian archbishop, Thomas 
Bakacs. He is said to have spent fabulous sums in 
the eternal city to further his object. In order to 
ingratiate himself with the populace he had his 
horses' feet shod with silver shoes, but so loosely 
that they were dropped on the road and picked up 
by the people. Being unsuccessful at the papal elec- 
tion, he begged of the new pope, Leo X., to be 
allowed, as a solace for his disappointment, to organ- 
ize a crusade against the Turks on his return to Hun- 
gary. The arrival of Bakacs was the signal for a fierce 
struggle in the ranks of the Diet. A portion of the 
oligarchy, who hoped to derive some profit from this 
venture, warmly advocated his scheme, while by 
others, who were too much burdened already, it was 
violently opposed. Stephen Telegdy, the keeper of 
the treasure, stood at the head of the latter and 
threw the whole weight of his authority into the 
scale in order to prevent the passing of the law sanc- 
tioning the crusade. He vividly pictured the misera- 
ble condition of the peasantry, and resolutely objected 
to providing them with arms, saying that it would be 
equivalent to arming their own enemies. The law 
was passed in spite of this remonstrance, and the 
crusade was proclaimed on the i6th of July, I5i4« 



THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE, 269 

The condition of the Hungarian peasants at that 
period was a most wretched one. Those who inhabited 
the border were beggared by the incessant plundering 
expeditions of the Turks, while the remainder fared 
hardly better at the hands of their lords. Their 
masters were always in need of large sums of money 
to cover their enormous expenditures. A German 
contemporary, who lived for some time in Hungary, 
wrote of the landed gentry that they were in the 
habit of spending whole nights in riotous living, and 
passing the days with sleeping off the effects of their 
nocturnal orgies. The money required for this mode 
of life had to be wrung from the hard labor of the 
poor peasant, who was also weighed down by other 
burdens. The Hungarian nobility enjoyed privi- 
leges only; their shoulders knew no burdens. It 
was the peasantry who paid all the taxes, who had 
to pay out of their hard-earned farthings tithes to 
support the clergy ; and over and beyond all this, 
they had to provide for their lords and masters. 
The peasant had to till the soil if he did not wish to 
starve, and in time of war he was compelled to ran- 
som himself from military service. Against oppres- 
sions on the part of his lord he had no remedy, 
for his master was his judge. The lords' tribunal sat 
in judgment over the peasant, and it can be easily 
imagined what kind of justice was meted out to him. 

Such was the sad condition of the peasantry when 
the crusade was proclaimed. No wonder that the 
oppressed peasants flocked in great numbers into 
the camps ready to exchange the abject drudgery 
of their daily life for the perils of crusading. A 



2'JO THE STOR V OF HUNGAR V. 

large portion of the nobility were from the first 
arrayed against this movement, all the more so as it 
happened during the season when there was most 
work to do in the field, and it was very difficult for 
them to get along without the laborers. The peasants 
looked with indifference upon the distress of their mas- 
ters, and deserted them in daily increasing numbers to 
take up the holy cross. Bakacs had already provided 
a leader for them, singling out for that position a 
simple gentleman from Transylvania. His name was 
George Dozsa, a name which, coupled with a doubt- 
ful fame, will, nevertheless, continue to figure for all 
times in the history of his country. Hungarian his- 
torians of our days are fond of ascribing to him high 
and patriotic schemes, and love to portray him as a 
hero in the cause of liberty and one animated by a 
lofty spirit. Yet, if we attentively scan his actions, 
we are compelled to admit that he was little better 
than a brave and desperate peasant, whose whole con- 
duct proves him to have bitterly hated the nobility. 
Nor was he indebted to any great qualities for the 
distinction he had won. His chief merit consisted 
in being a bold man, of a fine and martial appear- 
ance, in possessing a voice fit for command, and 
in having a few years before, in a skirmish, cleft in 
twain a Turkish pasha. The officers placed under 
him were for the most part poor nobles like himself, 
together with a few citizens from Pesth, and a 
certain Lawrence Meszaros, a priest from Czegled. 
In a few days there were collected at the camp of 
Pesth no less than 40,000 men, who were to be 
marched against the Turks. But the army did not 



THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 2/1 

need to go so far to find an enemy: — namely, their 
old oppressors, their Hungarian masters. The more 
hot-headed amongst the peasants were harangu- 
ing the others with vehemence, exciting their pas- 
sions. Their chief, Dozsa, was himself swept into 
the new movement. Bakacs himself became terror- 
stricken at the direction things were taking. He 
called upon Dozsa to lead the army to their 
place of destination, and as the latter hesitated to 
obey, he was placed by this high church dignitary 
under the ecclesiastical ban. Dozsa, in answer to 
the archbishop's anathema, changed his programme, 
and led his men against the nobility. The struggle 
was short but bitter. It was fear rather than the 
badly armed troops of peasants that, at first, defeated 
the great nobles. As soon as the first shock was 
over, every member of the nobility felt that to avoid 
the general ruin of all, they must stand together, in a 
well organized force. They gathered under the leader- 
ship of Stephen Bathory, the chief Comes (count) of 
Temes, and Nicholas Csaky, bishop of Csanad, but 
were destined to meet with yet another defeat. The 
cruelties then perpetrated by the blood-thirsty peas- 
antry beggar all description. They overran the 
whole country, burning one castle after another, and 
* massacred, by the light of the flames, all the noblemen 
with their families who were so unfortunate as to fall 
into their hands. Stephen Telegdy, who had so 
vehemently opposed the crusade, himself lost his 
life in this shocking manner, and Nicholas Csaky was 
captured on the battle-field, and was, to the delight 
of the whole camp, killed with torture. 



272 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

Dozsa now proceeded to lay siege to Temesvar. 
He had singled out this fortified place as the point 
from which he would conquer the country for his 
peasants, but at this very spot he had to learn by 
painful experience that it was not an easy task to 
cope with the established power, no matter how de- 
moralized for the time it be. The factions, admon- 
ished by the common peril, ceased for the time their 
party strife, and the chief Comes of Temes, a parti- 
san of the king, did not hesitate to invoke the support 
of John Szapolyai, the vayvode of Transylvania, 
Avho was the leader of the national party. The vay- 
vode, together with a strong force of the yeomanry 
of Transylvania, came to his assistance, and the 
struggle soon approached its termination. At the 
first engagement the army of D6zsa was utterly de- 
feated, those who survived were scattered, and the 
leader with a few of his companions was taken cap- 
tive. The savage work of retaliation now followed. 
The vayvode Szapolyai was the president of the 
tribunal. The victory he had achieved raised his 
authority with the nobility, who looked upon the 
late struggle as a war waged for their extermination, 
and he thought it would add to his glory if he 
presented to the excited nobles a harrowing spec- 
tacle. Mercy was shown only to Gregory, the brother 
of George Dozsa, inasmuch as he was merely beheaded. 
The remaining rebel leaders, including Dozsa, were 
thrown into prison, and were not permitted to taste 
any food for a fortnight. Nine of them still remained 
amongst the living. Dozsa was seated on a red 
hot iron throne, a red hot crown was placed on his 



THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 2/3 

forehead, and a red hot sceptre forced into his hand. 
Not a murmur of pain escaped him during this 
dreadful torture. Only when his famished compan- 
ions in arms rushed upon him and tore the charred 
flesh from his body to appease their craving for food, 
he exclaimed : *' These hounds are of my own train- 
ing." This was the end of one of the episodes of 
this sanguinary domestic war. F'our months of civil 
strife had cost the country the lives of. 50,000 men. 
At a future period, not very distant, the nation 
might have made a much better use of these lives, 
but there seemed to be a fatality impelling the peo- 
ple to become their own destroyers. The Hun- 
garian popular feeling has always sympathized with 
the peasantry in this bloody rebellion. Thus the 
story is, to this day, current amongst the people, 
that, as often as the Lord's body was raised, during 
mass, Szapolyai became maddened for a few minutes, 
because by his deeds he had rendered himself un- 
worthy of beholding the sacred host. History, on 
the other hand, still cherishes the names of John 
Gosztonyi, bishop of Raab, and Gotthard Siikey, a 
captain from Papa, of whom it is recorded that in 
order to scatter the peasantry with as little bloodshed 
as possible they loaded their guns with grass and 
rags instead of cannon balls. The 50,000 victims, 
however, did not suffice to appease the vindictive 
spirit of the victors, for in their opinion the crimes 
of the peasantry called for a sterner expiation. The 
crime of the fathers must be visited on all genera- 
tions to come. The Diet, which met on the i8th of 
October, 15 14, seemed to think that the peasants had 



2/4 THE SrORY OF HUNGARY. 

been treated too mildly, and that all of them deserved 
death. The wise fathers of the land reflected, how- 
ever, that if all were exterminated no one would be 
left to work for the nobles and to provide them with 
food and drink. They therefore let mercy prevail — 
but mercy as they understood it was the most re- 
fined cruelty. The peasants were to be allowed to 
live, but their life should become a calamity to them. 
The perpetual servitude of the peasantry was pro- 
claimed, and it was ordained that they should be 
chained down to the soil. 

This iniquitous law was passed and sanctioned by 
the king on the 19th of November, on the same day 
that he confirmed the celebrated tripartite code com- 
piled by Stephen Verboczy, the Chief-Justice of the 
land. Truly a most remarkable contrast in legisla- 
tion. On the one hand, a code which established 
law and order in the kingdom ; on the other hand, 
the most inhuman measure in European history 
dictated by savage vindictiveness. Verboczy's tri- 
partite code, or, as its title runs, " Decretum triparti- 
tiim juris consuetiidinarii,'' is the most famous and 
the most important work of Hungarian jurisprudence, 
shedding also an interesting light on the social con- 
dition of the country at a remoter period. The 
iripartitum is a strong advocate of the privileges and 
immunities of the nobility. It establishes equal 
rights for all the members of the Hungarian nobility, 
acknowledging no difference between them except 
on grounds of personal merit. Every Hungarian 
noble accordingly was entitled to the privileges 
accorded to the whole body; he could not be de- 



THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 275 

prived of his liberty without due conviction ; above 
him there was but one lord and master, and that was 
the king, and he was exempt from taxation. It 
further limits the authority of the clergy over lay 
nobles, and denies the right of the Pope to the dis- 
posal of church benefices. After endeavoring in this 
manner to claim for the nobles independence as to 
those above them, the code at the same time tries 
to enlarge their rights as to those below them. The 
recent uprising of the peasantry offered a good op- 
portunity for this tendency. It says : '' The recent 
rebellion, aimed, under the pretext of a crusade, 
against the whole nobility, and led by a robber chief, 
has, for all days to come, put the stain of faithless- 
ness on the peasants, and they have thereby forfeited 
their liberty and become subject to their landlords 
in unconditional and perpetual servitude. The peas- 
ant has no sort of right over his master's land save 
bare compensation for his labor and such other re- 
ward that he may obtain. Every species of property 
belongs to the landlords, and the peasant has no 
right to invoke justice and the law against a noble." 
This was the view taken by the nobility at that 
period, a view which they succeeded in forcing upon 
the feeble king. 

The king, indeed was indifferent to the political 
and social changes which injured the best interests 
of the nation. His main purpose was to secure the 
throne to his family, and as long as he succeeded in 
this all the rest was '^ dobzse'' to him. He had his 
sickly son crowned when he was but an infant of two 
years, and obtained for him the powerful protection 



2j6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

of the imperial family. In 1506 his queen, Anna of 
Candal, an intelligent and energetic woman, the 
niece of Louis XL, King of France, died. The sor- 
row of the widowed king was boundless ; for days 
he remained in his rooms weeping and moaning. 
Ten years later he followed the queen he had so 
much mourned, and his son, Louis IL, succeeded 
him. Louis was a mere boy, but ten years old, 
when he ascended the throne, and his youth was an- 
other misfortune to the weakened and divided coun- 
try. The events of his reign are usually summed up 
in one sentence: "He was prematurely born, mar- 
ried young, ascended the throne young, and died 
young." We shall, however, devote a larger space 
to this kind-hearted but unfortunate youth. Louis, 
as was stated, came prematurely into the world, and 
it required all the skill the medical science of the 
time afforded to keep alive the royal infant, who 
hardly breathed when he was ushered into the world. 
For weeks he was kept lying in the warm carcasses 
of animals slaughtered and cut open for that pur- 
pose, and in this manner was saved from death. 
But little attention was paid to his education during 
his father's life ; it is reported that at a later period 
he blamed the latter for his neglect, and strove hard 
by redoubled exertions to make up for lost time. 
Although prematurely born he developed quite 
early in life, and was a tall and strong youth at the 
time his father died. Cardinal Thomas Bakacs, John 
Bornemisza, the castellan of Buda, and George of 
Brandenburg, Margrave of Anspach, were, by the 
king's last will, appointed his guardians. George 



THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 2// 

became the ruin of the ambitious young king. The 
good lessons taught him by Jacob Piso, his excellent 
teacher, were set at naught by this guardian. 
He was not actuated by sinister motives in spoiling 
his ward ; his conduct was the effect rather of 
a life-long habit of riotous living, of which he 
could not divest himself, and it was no wonder that 
the youthful king was quick to imitate the unworthy 
example. The more seriou'S studies soon gave way 
to amusements of all kinds, and the boy-king spent 
his life in riding, hunting, and feasting, as long as his 
means would allow. Some of the frolicsome eccen- 
tricities recorded of him best illustrate his giddiness. 
He had among his courtiers a man named Peter 
Korogi, whose indestructible stomach was far-famed 
for its utter want of squeamishness. It was his great 
delight to summon before him Korogi, and see him 
devour living mice, cats' tails, carrion found in the 
streets, and inkstands with the ink in them. Poor 
Korogi lost his life afterwards at the battle of 
Mohacs. 

A glance at Louis' court and at his personal sur- 
roundings will suffice to give us a picture of the 
condition of the country. Uladislaus had al- 
ready repeatedly complained that but a small 
portion of the revenues of the ■ state ever 
reached his hands, and that his income dur- 
ing three years did not amount to as much as 
King Matthias used to spend on his clerks, Louis, 
who, besides, had to defray the expenses of his edu- 
cation, fared infinitely worse. He had to put off 
from day to day his journey to Prague, the capital 



278 . THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

of his Bohemian kingdom, because he was unable 
to procure the funds necessary for his travelling 
expenses. Things came to such a pass that the 
king could not provide decently for the royal 
table, which was all the more unfortunate for him, 
as he boasted of an excellent appetite ; his con- 
temporaries relating of him that when his re- 
sources permitted, seven meals were daily served at 
his court. His penury finally reached such a point 
that he lacked the means of paying the wages of his 
household servants, and then it was that a certain 
sum was set apart for royal expenses, to be paid into 
the hands of the treasurer and not of the king, a 
contrivance which was of little avail, the treasurers 
themselves being untrustworthy. King Louis re- 
mained as poor as he was before, and we read that 
at a reception given to the ambassadors of foreign 
powers, where the most brilliant display would have 
been in place, the young king sat on his throne in 
dilapidated boots. In spite of his poverty Louis 
found a way to indulge in pastimes and to squander 
money. At a time when they write of him that he 
could not call a sound pair of boots his own, he re- 
mitted to one of his courtiers a debt of 40,000 ducats 
in exchange for a trained falcon. George of Branden- 
burg wrote on one occasion that although the court 
was dreadfully poor, yet they managed to carouse 
all the time. These entertainments were marked by 
scenes and occurrences which but ill comport with 
the dignity of a court. The king was excessively 
fond of amusements, and on one occasion he wrote 
three months before the carnival : '* Wherever we 



THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 279 

shall happen to be, even on a journey, we intend to 
make merry and to pass gayly our days." The ca- 
rousing at the court, however, was not confined to the 
carnival season, for we read that on the very eve of 
the battle of Mohacs, the king and queen were en- 
joying themselves right royally. The queen, too, 
was fond of gayeties. No one would have foretold 
of her that she should ever become so versed in 
matters of state. The difference between Mary 
the queen and Mary the widow might well elicit 
universal surprise. The eventful battle of Mohacs 
sobered her. While her husband lived she so freely 
entered into the pastimes and frolics of the king that 
the partisans of the king himself were compelled to re- 
mind her more than once of the rules of decency and 
propriety. 

A fierce struggle ensued between the oligarchical 
and the national party as to who should be selected 
for the royal council. This rivalry sprang by no 
means from patriotic motives, or from a desire to 
serve the country in the royal councils, but from the 
more sordid aim of making use of the royal authority 
to extend and increase their personal power and influ- 
ence. The party leaders were still the same. Szapol- 
yai and Verboczy stood at the head of the middle- 
class party, whilst the royal party, led by Bathory, 
made common cause with the Fuggers. The Fug- 
gers were the Rothschilds of the sixteenth century ; 
they had amassed immense wealth in Hungary by 
advancing at first an inconsiderable sum to the king, 
and obtaining for it the privilege of working the 
mines. They fraudulently exported from the land 



28o THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 

all the gold and silver obtained from the mines, 
while of the money advanced by them but very little 
got into the king's hands, as it had first to pass the 
hands of middle-men, who managed to keep large 
portions. In this way can it be accounted for that 
Thomas Bakacs' household was far more lavish and 
brilliant than that of the king himself, and that Count 
Alexius Thurzo, being in collusion with the Fug- 
gers, was enabled at one time to advance to the king 
32,000 florins. Emeric Szerencs' name figures most 
conspicuously amongst these money manipulators. 
He was a converted Jew, occupying a prominent 
position, and who subsequently became treasurer of 
the state. While he was never able to procure 
money for the treasury, he succeeded in constantly 
adding immense sums to his own fortune. The peo- 
ple at last rose against the unscrupulous treasurer, 
and attacked Szerencs in his own palace. He saved 
himself only with great difficulty from the fury of 
the populace by escaping through a window to which 
a rope ladder was attached. 

The party of the nobility was at last victorious. 
At the Diet assembled at Hatvan 14,000 nobles as- 
sumed such a menacing attitude towards the gov- 
ernment that all its members were compelled to 
give in their resignations, and Stephen Verboczy 
was elected by the triumphant party palatine of 
the kingdom. John Szapolyai became treasurer. 
To what extent the treasury was better managed 
under his direction it would be difficult to deter- 
mine, for the sad fact remained that the treasury 
still remained empty, and that the new treasurer was 



THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 28 1 

constantly adding to the number of his estates and 
increasing his domain. The magnates as well as the 
burghers clearly saw that nothing had been gained 
by the change effected in the administration. They 
therefore combined to restore the former govern- 
ment, and were headed by the great nobles who 
had been deprived of their offices — Bathory, the 
late palatine, and Alexius Thurzo. The league is 
known in Hungarian history under the name of the 
^'Kalandos " Society — the word " kalandos " having In 
the Magyar language the meaning of ^'adventurous," 
but in truth the word was derived from the '^ Kalends^' 
the society being in the habit of meeting on the '^ Kal- 
ends," or first of each month. This patriotic band 
of would-be saviors of their country went on with 
their intrigues even after the news had arrived of an- 
other Turkish inroad threatening the country. The 
league at last succeeded. At the Diet convoked in 
Buda they reinstated their party in power. Verboczy 
himself was not slow in perceiving that he had been 
used by Szapolyai merely as a tool, and, refusing to be 
an instrument in his hands, he resigned the dignity of 
which he had been already deprived by the Diet. In 
order to save his life he fled to Transylvania, but he 
could not prevent the Diet from declaring him to be 
an enemy to his countr}^ 

Bathory occupied again his former position of a 
palatine, and announced his programme in these 
brief words : ''We are not the cause of the ruin of 
the country " — a very strange assurance on the part 
of the councillors and leading statesmen of Louis II., 
coming too at a time when they were menaced on all 



282 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

sides by approaching perils. This conduct occasioned 
the papal nuncio's remark that "' they were playing 
comedy with their mutual protests." 

The Reformation added a new complication to the 
many dividing the nation, being a fresh source of 
discord amongst the people. This mighty religious 
movement spread as far as Hungary about the same 
time that it had won a large territory for itself in 
Germany. Here as there its adherents met with 
persecutions at the hand of the Roman Catholic 
Church. The new faith, although it had not gained 
large numbers, soon found its martyrs in the coun- 
try. Both of the political factions were equally guilty 
of these persecutions, and we find a telling proof of 
this in the fact that Verboczy as well as Bathory, 
the respective palatines of the hostile parties, each 
had his share in the executions of the Protestants 
who laid down their lives for their faith. While 
Hungarian blood was thus shed by the Hungarians 
themselves, their proud neighbor, Sultan Selim, the 
mighty ruler of the Turkish empire, had registered 
a vow before Allah, in case he would vouchsafe vic- 
tory to his armies over Persia, to build for his wor- 
ship three magnificent mosques — one in Jerusalem, 
another in Buda, and a third in Rome. The sultan 
vanquished the Persians, but was prevented by death 
from fulfilling his vow. In Hungary they made 
merry, drinking death to the Turks, and little 
dreaming that the new sultan was destined to in- 
flict upon them soon a most deadly blow. 

Solyman the Magnificent succeeded the fierce Se- 
lim. He combined in his person the talents of a 



THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 283 

great warrior, a great legislator, and a great theo- 
logian. It was not long before the Hungarians them- 
selves offered him an excuse for waging war against 
them. On his accession to the throne he had sent 
an ambassador to Louis II. for the purpose of pro- 
longing the peace between them. The overbearing 
Hungarian nobles did not so much as enter into a 
parley with the envoy, but threw him into prison, 
dragged him with them all over the country, and 
finally, after cutting off his nose and ears, sent him 
back to his master. This dire offence against the 
law of nations, and the unprovoked insult to the sul- 
tan in the person of his representative, could not 
be left unpunished. Solyman swore he would be 
avenged for this affront, and vowed he would get 
possession of that Belgrade which at one time had 
maintained its independence against the warlike 
genius of a Mohammed II. *He attacked simultan- 
eously two of the strongest border fortresses — Sha- 
batz and Belgrade. The king was just then too 
busy with his wedding with the Austrian princess 
Mary to allow himself to be disturbed by the hos- 
tile inroad, nor did his chief councillors take any heed 
of it. Bathory, the palatine of the kingdom, was 
also celebrating his nuptials, whilst Chancellor Szal- 
kay's attention was entirely absorbed by the admin- 
istration of the bishopric of Erlau that had been re- 
cently bestowed upon him. 

Shabatz stood under the command of Simon Lo- 
gody and Andrew Torma, both men of great hero- 
ism and rare courage. They shone out as conspicu- 
ous exceptions in this corrupt age. They preferred 



284 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

to face certain death rather than save themselves by 
deserting the fortress entrusted to their care, and 
solemnly swore to be true to the cause of the coun- 
try unto death. They and their brave garrison kept 
their oaths faithfully ; of five hundred men, but sixty 
were left on the i6th day of the siege. These sixty 
men were drawn up in soldierly array on the public 
square of the fort to receive the last assault of 
the Turkish army, and not one of them escaped 
with his life. Six weeks later Belgrade, the famous 
scene of Hungarian heroism, was taken by the 
Turks, and it is not often that an enemy achieved 
as easy a' victory over such a stronghold as this 
border fortress as the Turks secured on the 29th of 
August, 1 52 1. Francis Hedervari and young Valen- 
tine Torok had been entrusted with the defence of 
Belgrade. These selfish nobles, unmindful of their 
sacred duties, left Belgrade and proceeded to Buda, 
in order to obtain from the government repayment 
for the expenses already incurred by them for the 
maintenance of the fortress. Failing in their errand, 
they did not return to their trust, but left the gar- 
rison, numbering seven thousand men, to themselves, 
under the command of their subordinate ofHcers, the 
brave Blasius Olah, and the treacherous Michael 
More. Their desertion sealed the fate of this fort- 
ress. More became a traitor to the cause of his 
country ; he deserted to the enemy's camp, and, be- 
traying to the Turks the weak points of the strong- 
hold, he endeavored, at the same time, to prevail 
upon Olah to aid him in his wicked designs. The 
patriotism of the latter, however, was proof against 



THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE. 285 

all the allurements of the tempter. The fall of the 
fortress was, nevertheless, unavoidable. The number 
of the garrison had dwindled down to seventy-two 
men, when a squabble ensued between those of them 
who were Hungarians and those who were Servians, 
which ended in their compelling Olah to surrender 
the fortress. By the terms of the surrender the gar- 
rison was allowed to leave the fortress unmolested, 
but the Turks interpreted this clause in their own 
way. They were permitted to march into the Turk- 
ish camp, but on their wishing to leave the camp 
they were all of them massacred. 

The fall of Belgrade spread terror all' over- the 
country — all the more as it was entirely unexpected, 
and certainly might have been prevented. Bathory, 
the palatine, and John Szapolyai stood, each with 
a great army, not very far from Belgrade ; but these 
noblemen, obeying only the dictates of their mutual 
hatred, would not join their armies, and truly 
says the poet Charles Kisfaludy, that the deepest 
wounds inflicted upon the poor country were '' no, 
not by her enemies, but by her own sons." Louis 
himself was roused from his lethargy upon hearing 
the sad news. He upbraided his councillors for 
neglecting to warn him of the dangers menacing the 
country, and for not having taken measures to avert 
them ; nay, in his exasperation, as we are informed 
by his chaplain, he struck one of his councillors, 
Bishop Szalkay, in the face. Repentance was now 
too late, and the impending catastrophe seemed un- 
avoidable. It is true that the Hungarians achieved 
one more victory in the Hungarian Lowlands. Paul 



286 TiiK sroRV or iniNCARW 

TiMiKH)-, llu' lU'w ly appoinU'cl ;iri.liic'pisc()|)al caplain- 
in-rliicf (>{ that si-rtion, (lfft\ilt'd l^Vu'liiit ]\islia on tlic 
licKl of NaL;y-C)lasz, in Synnia. But the passing- 
l;1c)\v of this siicc(\ss U^ft no pcrniancMit t-ffrcts ; thicn^ 
years later the Turks were more forniithible than 
ever toll uni^n)'. 

While the lluni;ariau Diet was the seene of fierce 
discussions, h'raneis 1., Kiiu'; of tlu^ I'^iMieh, smart inij^ 
under the di-fi-at \\c had suffiMed at the hands of the 
I'anperor CharKs \'., stirred up Solyman ai;ainst 
llun<;ary and tlu^ llapshur^ erowndands, in order to 
effect a division (^i tlu- imperial army. In this 
scheme hraneis 1. succc^ccUhI so well that in the 
month (^{ AuLjust, 1 526, an ariu}' exceeding; 300,000 
nu'U, with 300 cannon, undei- tlu^ lead of Scd}'man, 
was invadiuL;' llum^ar}', 

'Idle niwvs o{ Si>l)'man*s approach found the ciuin- 
Ir}' unpriiMtxHl. The trc\isur}' did not contain money 
cnouj^h to pa\- the messeui^ers, still less to orc^anize 
an arnu'. \ rinpiisit ion of the i;old m\(\ siK'er plate 
and \'essels ol the church was o{ little a\ail, lor what 
little could be collcHMed, cn\ iuL^' to the ri\sistance of 
the cKMi;\'. was ajijuopriatetl a^^ain h)' the nobles, 
who w tM'e chai'i;ed with the dut\' t>f coining; them 
into moui)-. ('asj)ar Sered}M>w ed his wealth to such 
transact i(Uis, 

In soldiers the)' were evcMi poorer than in nu>ney. 
Tlu" sultan was ahwuh' crossitu; the s^nithern fri>ntier, 
and not a soldicMwas near Kin>; l.ouis. The cities 
bouL^ht their extMupti(Ui from mililar\' serxice with 
mone\', auil tlu> lyieat nobles w im e dilatorx". \\\c 
kini: tnialb' marched alone against the cmicuu-. The 



THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL DECLINE, 28/ 

guilty were seized with shame at this noble example, 
and about the beginning of August four thousand 
men had already rallied round him. He was steadily 
proceeding southward and reached Mohacs in the 
latter part of August. The army had swelled by this 
time to twenty-five thousand men, but it wanted a 
commander, and there was not in the whole country 
a single general capable of wielding large forces. The 
king, under these circumstances, had no other choice 
but to appoint, as commander-in-chief, Paul Tomory, 
whose victory achieved over the Turks was still fresh 
in memory. Shortly afterwards the Turkish army, 
which had occupied Peterwardein (Petervarad) a few 
days before, made its appearance. A serious discus- 
sion arose now whether the Hungarians should stand 
a battle, or, retreating first, join the army of Christo- 
pher Frangepan, coming from Slavonia, and that 
of John Szapolyai, marching from Transylvania. 
Tomory was in favor of accepting battle at once, and 
was sustained by the king. Francis Perenyi, the witty 
bishop of Grosswardein, on seeing that Tomory's 
counsels had prevailed, is reported to have said : 
" The Hungarian nation will have twenty thousand 
martyrs on the day of battle, and it would be well to 
have them canonized by the pope." The battle 
took place on the 29th of August, on a fine summer's 
day. The Hungarians formed in battle array early 
in the morning. The king, surrounded by his lay 
and ecclesiastical magnates, occupied the centre. A 
thousand mailed horseinen were around the king, 
and in their midst John Dragfy, the Chief-Justice of 
the land, waving high up in the air the national 



288 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

banner. Seated on a white horse, he wore no spurs, 
according to the ancient custom, implying that flight 
to him was impossible. 

Bathory, afflicted with the gout, rode with the 
king along the line of each troop, addressing words 
of encouragement to the men. The whole army im- 
patiently looked forward to the moment when the 
battle should begin, and, finally, at five o'clock in 
the afternoon the Turks advanced. It was remarked 
that the king, on the silver helmet being placed on 
his head, became deathly pale, as if in anticipation 
of the near danger, but while it shocked the attend- 
ants, it by no means disheartened them. 

The first onslaught came from the Hungarian 
horse, who rushed upon the enemy in front of them 
and drove them back. The Turkish troops thus at- 
tacked retreated without offering any resistance to 
the body of the army. The Hungarians, shouting 
victory, pressed on in hot pursuit, little dreaming 
that they were running into the jaws of sure destruc- 
tion. The retreat was but a feint, for when the 
Hungarian army had been drawn on near enough to 
the Turkish centre, the retreating troops opened 
their ranks, and, through the gap left open, three 
hundred cannon and several thousand Janissaries 
poured a murderous fire on the advancing troops. 
The slaughter was dreadful ; a large portion of the 
troops, including their commander and their stand- 
ard bearer, fell at the first fire. The rest fled in 
every direction, but were greatly impeded in their 
retreat by a violent shower of rain which suddenly 
burst on the fugitives, among whom was also the 



THE PERIOD OF NA TIONAL DECLINE. 289 

youthful king. As he was trying to cross the Csele, 
a small brook, swollen by the rain, the horse, after 
reaching the opposite bank, stumbled backward into 
the waters below, and buried his rider under him. 

The prophecy of Perenyi was fulfilled. Twenty 
thousand martyrs strewed the field of Mohdcs, and 
among them was the witty prophet himself. The 
Hungarians paid the heavy penalty of thirty-six 
years' misrule and disorder, but the worst was yet to 
come. On the loth of September there passed 
again a brilliant procession through the gates of 
Buda. This time it was not the crowned king of 
Hungary who made his entry into the fortress, but 
Solyman, who delivered it up for pillage to his 
soldiers. On this occasion was destroyed the famous 
library of Matthias. 





CHAPTER XII. 

THE TURKISH WORLD AND THE RISE OF PROTES- 
TANTISM IN HUNGARY. 

While Islam was rapidly losing ground, and hur- 
rying to irretrievable destruction on the peninsula 
south of the Pyrenees, it obtained a fresh foot- 
hold on another southern peninsula of Europe, in 
the regions of the Balkan washed by the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, and became there so powerful as to 
influence, for nearly five centuries, the political 
destinies of the Western world. At the same time 
that the power and culture of the Moorish state was 
declining in Spain, Europe found itself assailed by 
another Mohammedan nation, the Turks, who, tak- 
ing up the standard of the crescent, attempted to 
force upon the Christian world their new ideas, 
religious, political, and social. On the first appear- 
ance of the Turks on the Balkan peninsula, they were 
met by the two states which opposed their further 
advance, and the struggle with these began at once. 
The first, the Byzantine empire, was, however, at this 
time already an effete and tottering organization, 
an ancient and venerable ruin, and it was able to 
make but a feeble resistance. It retreated step by 
step before the Asiatic conquerors, who got posses- 

290 



THE TURKISH WORLD. , 29 1 

sion, first, of its entire outlying territory, and finally 
captured (in 1453) the seat of government, Byzan- 
tium, the renowned city of Constantine. The sec- 
ond opponent which withstood the advance of the 
Turks was Hungary, a state which, though still 
young, had shown a sturdy national vitality, and 
successively reduced to vassalage the countries of 
the Balkan, and was steadily engaged in extending 
its influence and authority towards the East. The 
Turks could not dispose of Hungary as easily and 
quickly as of the enfeebled Byzantine empire. 
More than a century of nearly constant conflict 
had to elapse before the Hungarian supremacy in 
the regions of the Balkan was put an end to, and 
the Turks were able to penetrate as far as Mohacs, 
and there to inflict a mortal blow on the indepen- 
dence of Hungary. During this struggle of a century 
and a half the name and fame of Hungary were 
perpetuated by many a brilliant feat of war, and by 
many glorious victories, and when John Hunyadi, 
the most formidable foe of the Turks, died, all 
Europe mourned his death as the loss of the great 
champion of Christianity. His son, Matthias the 
Just, one of the greatest kings of Hungary, whose 
memory is held in pious reverence by the Hun- 
garian people to this day, following in the foot-steps 
of his illustrious father, through his many triumphs, 
made his own name, too, hardly less formidable 
to the Turks. But Hungary, as the offspring of 
the Western Church, the Church of Rome, turned 
her looks, at that time, to the West rather than 
to the East, and Hungarian statesmanship was 



292 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

far more intent upon humiliating the emperor of what 
was then known as the Roman empire, than upon 
breaking down the power of the Turks. King Mat- 
thias captured Vienna, and made large conquests at 
the expense of the German empire, but he chastised the 
Turks only now and then, and never seriously thought 
of endeavoring to thoroughly crush the Turkish 
power. Under his feeble successors, the Turks, who 
easily recuperated from the losses of single battles, 
grew into a formidable power, which soon brought 
Hungary to the verge of ruin. We have described, in 
the preceding pages, the fatal battle of Mohacs, fought 
on the 29th of August, 1526, in which the youthful 
King Louis II. opposed an army of hardly 25,000 
men to Solyman's 300,000, to be swept away by 
the torrent of overwhelming numbers. To give an 
adequate idea, however, of this awful catastrophe 
in the annals of Hungary, we will add here that 
seven bishops and archbishops, thirteen lords of the 
banner, five hundred magnates, and many thousand 
nobles laid down their jives on the bloody battle- 
field. 

The nation was seized with indescribable ter- 
ror on learning the details of this dreadful calamity; 
entire villages were deserted by their inhabitants, 
who scattered in every direction. The widowed 
queen, finding herself utterly deserted in Buda, 
fled to Presburg, and the capital of Hungary, one of 
the finest cities of Christendom, which but a little 
more than a generation before had been made one of 
the chief centres of European learning and culture, 
passed, in less than two weeks after the fatal day of- 



, THE TURKISH WORLD. , 293 

Mohacs, without any resistance, into the hands of the 
victorious Solyman. The Turks sacked and set fire to 
the beautiful city, and all its magnificent buildings, 
save the royal palace, were destroyed by the flames. 
The victoriousenemy met with as little opposition in 
ravaging and massacring in the country as they had 
encountered at the capital. There was no one to 
stay their devastations. The miserable peasantry 
still made some feeble attempts at defence ; here and 
there a few thousand men collected at some fortified 
position to protect themselves and their families. 
Thus some 20,000 men " retreated into the Vertes 
mountains, and, under the leadership of Michael 
Dobozy, entrenched themselves near the village of 
Marot, in a camp fortified by a barricade constructed 
of wagons. But the Turks had their guns carried up 
to the nearest eminence, and opened a fire on the 
occupants of the improvised wall. The peasants 
were struck with terror, and the undisciplined boors, 
the wailing women and children, deserted, their shel- 
tering wagons in despair. Dobozy, seeing that all 
was lost, mounted his gallant steed, and placing his 
young wife on the saddle before him, he sought 
safety in flight. The elated Turks fell upon the fly- 
ing Hungarians, frightfully massacring their ranks. 
Among the fugitives, Dobozy especially attracted 
the enemy's attention, owing to the superior- 
ity of his armor, indicative of gentle blood, and 
more particularly because of the young woman he 
carried in his arms. They pursued him like blood- 
hounds. The distance between the pursuers and 
pursued gradually diminished, and Dobozy's horse 



294 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

began to show signs of exhaustion under the double 
burden. Wife and husband saw the fierce forms, 
eager for prey, draw nearer and nearer. Still there 
was a gleam of hope for them if they could reach the 
near brook, cross the bridge, and destroy it before 
their pursuers came up with them. They succeeded 
in gaining the bridge, but, alas, the flying peasants 
had already broken it off, and there was no other 
thoroughfare to the opposite bank. 

All was lost now. Dobozy told his wife to fly by 
herself, whilst he would remain and stay with his 
own breast the progress of their pursuers. But the 
young spouse would not part from her loving hus- 
band, not even in death, and besought him to kill 
her rather than to expose her to the chance of falling 
into the hands of the pagan enemy. The desperate 
husband, seeing the Turks quite near to them, 
stabbed his youthful wife with his own dagger, and 
then, turning upon his adversaries, dearly sold his 
life. The spot where Dobozy and his faithful wife 
lost their lives is, to this day, called Basaharcz 
(the Pasha struggle). 

The immense Turkish army spread all over the 
country, everywhere plundering, ravaging, and de- 
stroying defenseless lives, and reducing, in a war of 
a few months' duration, the population of the coun- 
try by nearly 200,000 souls. The capital in ruins, 
hundreds of other places deserted and laid waste, 
the country without a king, the church without any 
higher clergy, the greater part of the nobility, used 
to arms, killed — such was the condition in which 
Hungary was left by the Turks at the departure of 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 295 

Sultan Solyman. In October, 1526, he left the 
doomed country, having first laden his ships, sailing 
for Constantinople, with the treasures of the palace 
of King Matthias — its rare curiosities, its bronze 
statues, and a portion of the famous Corvinian 
library. 

The fatal day of Mohacs had entirely overturned 
the order in the state, and amongst the magnates 
who survived it party strife soon broke out. One 
party, acting upon the conviction that enfeebled 
Hungary was unable to resist, unsupported, the over- 
whelming power of the Turks, elected a Hapsburg 
archduke, Ferdinand of Austria, a brother of Charles 
v., the Roman emperor, king of Hungary, and since 
that time the royal crown has, in fact, remained in 
possession of the Hapsburgs. It was through this 
dynasty that the Hungarian people endeavored to 
secure the aid of the German empire against the 
Osmanlis. But another party amongst the great lords 
pursued an opposite course. In their opinion a native 
dynasty and peaceful relations with the invincible 
Turks were the means of rescuing the country from 
her pitiable plight. These patriots, therefore, elected 
as king of Hungary, John Szapolyai, the vayvode of 
Transylvania, and the most powerful lord in the coun- 
try, and thus the nation had now two kings in the 
place of the one who had fallen at Mohacs. 

But neither of these parties nor their royal repre- 
sentatives could save the country from the Turks; 
on the contrary, the continual rivalries between the 
two kings not only demoralized public virtue and 
upset all law and authority within the kingdom, but 



296 THE ST OR Y OF HUNGAR V. 

they assisted not a little the foreign enemy in getting 
into their possession, by slow degrees, the larger part 
of Hungary, and enabled the Turks, within a brief 
period, to float their crescent on the towers of Buda, 
and there, to the ruin of the nation, and to the per- 
petual terror of the Christian world, it continued to 
wave for nearly one hundred and fifty years. The 
history of the Hungarian nation during this entire 
period is sad in the extreme — a tragedy, the scenes 
of which are supplied by an uninterrupted series of 
trials and sufferings. Owing to the incapacity of the 
leading statesmen and generals, the ruin of the coun- 
try became rhore and more irretrievable. Yet, how- 
ever dark and forlorn this period may seem, the na- 
tional sufTerings of those days are relieved and bright- 
ened by the glorious heroism and patriotism dis- 
played by the people. The Hungarians, although 
menaced, in their very existence, by many enemies, 
by party strife, and religious dissensions, exhibited 
such rare moral courage, heroism, devotion, self- 
denial, and manliness, that the memory of the gen- 
erations of that melancholy era will remain forever 
hallowed. Heroes arose on every side, and the 
struggle, sustained by the nation for nearly a cen- 
tury and a half against the oppressive power of the 
Turks, reminds one, in many of its features, of the 
protracted contest between the Spaniards and the 
Moors, and, like it, abounds in poetry, romance, and 
those noble examples of patriotism and loftiness of 
soul which kindle the human heart, arouse the sym- 
pathies of the poet, and are treasured up by the 
piety of after-ages as glorious relics of the past. 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 297 

Solyman's ambitious schemes looked for still wider 
fields of conquest, and in 1529 he marched towards 
Vienna, in order to attack King Ferdinand in his 
own capital. The city, however, was successfully 
defended. In 1532 Solyman advanced again upon 
Vienna. The sultan's progress was unopposed until 
he reached Koszeg (German, Giins), in the neighbor- 
hood of the Austrian frontier. The keys of sixteen 
fortresses and fortified cities lay at his feet ; Koszeg 
alone refused to do homage, and arrested the sultan's 
triumphal march. Michael Juricsics was its com- 
mander; he was just about to remove his small 
garrison, consisting of twenty-eight hussars and 
ten cuirassiers, to Vienna, for whose defence all 
the available forces were being called in, when the 
Turks appeared beneath the walls of Koszeg. On 
beholding the approach of the immense Turkish 
army, Juricsics took a bold and noble resolution. 
He determined to hold the fortress, and to die rather 
than surrender it to the enemy. He immediately 
took measures to defend the place ; he repaired the 
walls and bastions, armed seven hundred peasants 
who had sought refuge in the city, and purchased 
with his own money gunpowder and provisions. 
The Turkish army arrived under the walls of Koszeg 
on the 5th of August, 1532; a few days later the 
sultan himself joined them, and the siege Avas prose- 
cuted at once with the utmost energy. The outer 
fortifications had already fallen into the hands of the 
enemy, the guns and mines had effected a breach 
sixteen yards wide in the main wall of the citadel, of 
its seven hundred defenders half had fallen, and on 



298 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

the 24th of August Juricsics had but one hundred 
weight of gunpowder left. Yet the plucky reply he 
gave to the sultan's summons to surrender was: "As 
long as I live I will not surrender." The Turks there- 
upon directed a fresh assault upon the citadel, and 
the garrison again lost many lives, while Juricsics 
himself was wounded. The Turks pressed into the 
city, but the inhabitants, at their approach, broke 
out into such dreadful howling and wailing that the 
frightened assailants retreated, and the city was 
once more miraculously spared. But Juricsics him- 
self saw now the impossibility of further resistance ; 
he had no more gunpowder, and most of the gar- 
rison were like himself wounded. For the purpose, 
therefore, of sparing the lives of the remaining in- 
habitants, he finally permitted the Turkish flag to be 
hoisted over the city. Solyman, seeing the Turkish 
flag floating over Koszeg, thought he had captured 
the citadel, and retired from under the walls on the 
31st of August. But it was not towards Vienna that 
he directed his steps, but homeward. He had been 
delayed nearly four weeks near Koszeg, and during 
this time a powerful army had been collected in 
Vienna which the sultan had not the courage to 
face. Juricsics had thus, by his heroism, saved 
Vienna from a siege, the issue of which might have 
been calamitous to that renowned city of Chris- 
tendom. 

Many were still found in other parts of the country 
to follow the stirring example set by Juricsics, but 
unfortunately success but rarely attended their devo- 
tion. Most of them were fated only to be martyrs to 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 299 

the sacred cause, shedding their blood on the altar 
of their tottering country. The farther the Turkish 
conquests extended the more precarious and peri- 
lous became the position of the isolated commanders 
of the Hungarian border fortresses. The safety of a 
whole territory or country often depended upon the 
possession of one of these strongholds. Thus were 
the wealthy mining towns and the entire Hungarian 
mining region protected by the fortified place of 
Dregel, and it naturally attracted the attention of 
the Turks, always thirsting for plunder, who hast- 
ened to lay siege to it, hoping, by its possession, to 
open the road to the mines. Gallant George Szondi, 
the commandant of the fortress of Dregel, was a de- 
termined and magnanimous man who, fully con- 
scious of the great importance of the place, was 
ready to defend it with his life. The fortress itself 
was not one of the first order, and was guarded only 
by a small garrison. 

In July, 1552, a Turkish army numbering about 
10,000 appeared under the walls. Ali, the Pasha 
of Buda, himself a chivalrous and noble-minded 
soldier, stood at the head of the besiegers, and, 
under the fire of his guns, the bastions crumbled to 
dust in the course of a few days. When the great 
tower too, was but a heap of ruins, and the walls 
were showing wide gaps everywhere, and all hope 
of being able to continue the defence seemed to 
have vanished, Ali sent a message to the com- 
mandant of Dregel. He employed a clergyman 
by the name of Marton, the parish priest of a 
neighboring village, to go to Szondi and to tell 



300 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

him that : '' AH reverently bowed before Szondi's 
bravery and determined spirit, the report of which 
had reached him long ago, and of which he had 
had good occasion to convince himself during the 
present siege, but as the position could be held 
no longer, Szondi ought to preserve his heroic 
life and to surrender the crumbling fortress, and 
if this were done free departure should be guaran- 
teed for himself and his people." Szondi silently 
listened to the message of Ali, whom he knew to 
be a noble and chivalrous foe, but manfully de- 
clined to lay down his arms. He was resolved to 
defend the place to his last breath, and rather 
bury himself under its ruins than negotiate with 
the enemy. But he in turn asked now a favor of 
Ali Pasha, not for himself, but for two youthful 
troubadours, two young bards who were in the 
fortress, and for whom the Hungarian hero wished 
to provide before his death. He had the youths 
dressed in purple velvet and sending them, under 
the care of Father Marton, to Ali Pasha, he re- 
quested the latter to take these youths — some say 
they were his own sons — into his service, as he 
himself would not be able to bring them up, and 
to make brave men of them. Then summoning 
into his presence two Turkish captives remaining 
in the fortress, he bestowed upon them rich pres- 
ents and allowed them to depart. 

As soon as Marton had left with his youthful 
charges Szondi felt that the supreme moment, the 
moment of a glorious death, was near at hand. He 
ordered his money, his clothes, and all his valu- 



THE TURKISH WORLD. _ 3OI 

ables to be taken into the courtyard of the cita- 
del, and, for fear they might fall into the hands 
of the enemy, he himself set fire to them and saw 
them reduced to ashes. Then he directed his 
steps to the stables, and thrust with his own 
hands his lance through his horses, his noble war 
steeds. Hastening now to his few remaining sol- 
diers he addressed to them touching words of 
farewell. Outside, the approach of the Turks, 
preparing for the assault and shouting Allah, was 
already heard. Szondi, at the head of his two com- 
panies, rushed to the citadel gate and there laid 
down his life after heroically defending himself. A 
ball having penetrated his foot, the dying man sank 
on his knees and continued the fight to his last 
breath. He was finally cut down by the Turks, who 
surrounded him on all sides ; his head was placed on 
a lance and carried in triumph to the victorious Ali. 
The generous Turk was deeply moved by this noble 
example of self-sacrifice, and, having given orders to 
seek out Szondi's body, he caused his remains to be 
buried with great military pomp, in a neighboring 
hill. For a long time the spot where Szondi was 
laid into the grave was marked by a pike and a flag. 
One of the greatest poets of modern Hungary, John 
Arany, has perpetuated Szondi's story in a beautiful 
ballad, and contemporary piety has just erected 
amidst the ruins of Dregel a chapel in memory of 
the departed hero. 

Stephen Losonczy, another Hungarian hero, who 
shared Szondi's fate a few days later, had no such 
noble opponent as Ali to deal with. Temesvar, the 



302 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

largest fortress in the country, was entrusted to his 
care. Fifty thousand Turks marched on Temesvar, 
and having quickly reduced all the smaller fortified 
places and cities near it, they reached the fortress 
in an over-confident mood. Losonczy immediately 
sallied out to meet the enemy, and so intimidated 
them that they soon gave up the siege and left the 
neighborhood. Yet only for a short time ; they re- 
turned in greater numbers under the leadership of 
Ahmed Pasha. The latter at once called upon the 
Hungarian commandant to surrender the fortress. 
Losonczy collected in the public square the garrison 
which numbered altogether 2,200 soldiers, of whom 
1,300 were Hungarians and the remainder Germans, 
Czechs, and Spaniards, and asked them if they were 
ready to defend to death the fortress in their charge. 
The enthusiastic shouts of the soldiers — that they 
were ready to die rather than yield up the place — 
was the answer he received. Losonczy at once 
swore in his men, and immediately answered the 
summons of the Turkish pasha by a sally from the 
fortress, driving the enemy from the vicinity of the 
trenches. 

The Turks now proceeded to lay regular siege to 
the fortress — a branch of military science in Avhich 
they were highly accomplished. They were masters 
in the art of reducing fortified places, in the mining 
works, and in the handling of the great battering guns. 
Thirty-six guns of heavy calibre soon poured their 
shots into the fortifications, which after a couple of 
days exhibited such breaches that the pasha thought 
the time for an assault had arrived. Thousands of 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 303 

brave Janissaries rushed at the tottering walls. There, 
however, they were met by the guard, who, themselves 
ready to die, made a frightful havoc amongst their 
assailants. The assault was repulsed in a few hours, 
the trenches were filled with the Turkish dead, and 
many a distinguished bey and ofificer of high rank 
was left lifeless on the scene of the sanguinary con- 
test. 

Losonczy, however, saw that all the heroism of his 
soldiers was thrown away if he did not receive aid 
from abroad. He therefore applied to the com- 
manders of the royal and Transylvanian armies for 
soldiers, gunpowder, and other war requisites of which 
he had run short, but could obtain nothing from them. 
In this strait he resolved to devote his own fortune to 
the cause of his country, and wrote to his wife, the 
high-minded Anna Pekry, who was outside the for- 
tress, to turn all he had into money, to mortgage his 
estates, and, with the funds thus obtained, to hire 
soldiers, purchase munitions, and send them into the 
besieged fortress. The generous woman was ready 
to bring any sacrifice to assist her husband in his ex- 
treme distress, and, taking into her pay five hundred 
volunteers (hayduks) whom she provided with the 
necessary military equipments, she bade them march 
to the relief of Temesvar. But the place was already 
completely invested, and the small troop was unable 
to penetrate the strong blockading cordon of the 
Turks. The five hundred hayduks were dispersed 
by the enemy, the gunpowder was taken away from 
them, and now Losonczy gave up all hope of aid from 
without. 



304 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

Yet the gallant commander never for a moment 
wavered in his duty. He wrote, in one of his last 
letters : *' We are patiently looking forward to the 
moment when we must die," and all he asked of the 
king was to take care of his little orphans. The hour 
was not far off, for the long siege had already ex- 
hausted their ammunition and provisions, and the 
Turks were constantly renewing their assaults. Al- 
though the enemy lost at times three thousand men 
in one assault, they returned each day in still greater 
numbers and repeated the attack. St. Anne's Day 
arrived, the day of the patron saint of Anna, 
Losonczy's wife, which in brighter days he used to 
celebrate, according to ancestral fashion, by merry 
carousing, but it was now a melancholy day for the 
brave commander. The provisions and ammuni- 
tion v/ere all exhausted, and the Turks, after immense 
losses, had finally succeeded in occupying the large 
entrenched tower lying between the inner citadel 
and the town. 

Hungry, without gunpowder, and with no hope of 
relief from abroad, Losonczy's soldiers began at last 
to mutiny, and, wishing to save their lives, they in- 
sisted upon the surrender of the town. The Span- 
ish soldiers — the foreigners — especially demanded 
the giving up of the place, while the Hungarians 
declared that they were still ready to follow their 
gallant leader to death. The inhabitants of the town, 
reflecting that by a capitulation they might save 
their lives and property, whereas if the Turks entered 
the city by force of arms they would be shown no 
mercy, finally sided with the Spanish party and were 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 305 

bent upon making terms with the enemy. At first 
Losonczy would not hear of yielding, but when 
Ahmed Pasha's messengers appeared at the fortress 
and promised every one safe departure, besides the 
right of taking with him all his movables, the Span- 
iards compelled him to sign the capitulation. 

So the brave soldier at last gave up the struggle, 
and, troubled by sad forebodings, he withdrew from 
the ruined fortress at the head of his decimated 
troops, who were still fully armed. Outside the 
gate he was received with military honors by the 
Turkish commanders. Losonczy was proceeding on 
his good horse through the ranks of the enemy which 
were in a line drawn up on either side, when sud- 
denly there came from the Hungarians in the rear 
shoutings and cries. He turned back and saw that 
the Turks, in shameful disregard of the terms of 
capitulation, had fallen upon his pages and were pil- 
laging them. The old warrior could not witness this 
disgrace unmoved ; he drew his sword, once more 
the war-trumpet sounded the attack, and he rushed 
to the rescue of his men. The engagement became 
general and the small band was almost entirely cut 
down. Losonczy fearlessly braved death, and, bleed- 
ing from numerous wounds, was finally taken by the 
perfidious enemy, who, cutting off the hero's head, 
sent it as a token of triumph to Stambul. Thus, in 
1552, passed Temesvar, one of the most important 
fortified places in Hungary, into the possession of the 
Turks. It remained longer under the Turkish yoke 
than any other Hungarian stronghold of importance, 
for thirty years elapsed after the reconquest of Buda 



306 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

before it was again restored to the possession of the 
king of Hungary. 

Szondi and Losonczy might have been spared 
martyrdom if the commander-in-chief of the royal 
army, who were all foreigners, had, in their vanity, 
had the courage to attempt their rescue. They wit- 
nessed, sunk in cowardly inactivity, the deadly throes 
of these heroes, and looked on with indifference 
while one fort after the other was falling into hostile 
hands. These foreign commanders, with their armies 
composed of foreigners, were never able to cope with 
the Turks. If they ventured to engage in a battle 
they were sure to lose it. In this way can it be 
accounted for that in spite of the superhuman efforts 
of the Hungarians who heroically battled for their 
country, the Turkish conquests grew apace, and the 
flat portions of the land, the rich and fertile lowlands, 
passed under the rule of the Osmanlis. Transyl- 
vania, the eastern portion of the country, had strug- 
gled into a sort of independence, and severing herself 
gradually from the mother-country, had a separate 
state organization of her own under her native rulers, 
so that Hungary may be said at this time to have 
been cut up into three parts. The largest portion 
accepted the Turkish supremacy, Transylvania as- 
serted its independence, and the remaining and 
smallest division acknowledged the kings of the 
Hapsburg dynasty, whose residence was in Vienna. 
The German, Italian, and Spanish troops employed 
by the latter, together with those by whom they 
were led, so far from being instrumental in the lib- 
eration of the country, indulged in the same licen- 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 307 

tious and lawless behavior as the Turks themselves. 
They were utterly ignorant of the language, customs, 
and institutions of the Hungarian people, and were 
entirely indifferent to the interests of the country. 
These irresponsible military bodies harassed and 
plundered the native population to such an extent 
that it was not long before the Hungarians came to 
hate the foreign soldiery, and the Germans in gen- 
eral, as much as they did the Turks. 

But even during the most depressing days, and 
under circumstances of a most desperate and hope- 
less character, the spirit of heroism did not die out 
amongst the Hungarian people. Shortly after the 
reduction of Temesvar the immense Turkish army 
marched against Erlau. Stephen Dobo was the com- 
mandant of the latter place. He knew by the sad 
examples of Losonczy and Szondi what was in store 
for him, and, although the royal troops were near, 
he also knew, from experience, that he could not de- 
pend upon any help from that quarter, and must 
needs look to his own resources to stay the progress 
of the overwhelming forces of the Osmanlis. '' We 
expect aid from God only, and not from men," he 
wrote at the approach of the enemy. He immedi- 
ately took measures to defend the place ; he laid in 
large supplies of ammunition, sulphur, saltpetre, and 
provisions, sent his lieutenant, Mecsey, a soldier 
worthy of his chief, into the adjoining counties to 
fire the hearts of the young men, and to invite them 
to enroll themselves amongst the defenders of the 
fortress. He made up his garrison of Hungarians 
only, knowing, from experience, that the foreign 



308 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

hirelings could not be trusted. He had altogether 
only nine guns and nine gunners, but he hurriedly 
drilled the students and the more intelligent amongst 
the peasants in artillery practice, and formed them 
into a separate corps of cannoniers. Having pro- 
vided every thing in time, and placing his trust in 
God and his own strength, he calmly awaited the 
enemy. 

No sooner had the immense Turkish army arrived, 
when Ahmed Pasha summoned Dobo to surrender 
the fortress. Dobo collected about him his men and 
publicly read to them the pasha's letter. The gal- 
lant Hungarian garrison shouted, as with one heart, 
that they w^ould never surrender the place. Dobo, 
his fellow-officers, and all the men, then took a sol- 
emn oath to fight to the bitter end, and that, if any 
one but breathed about the surrender, he should be 
hanged on the pillar of the town well. As an answer 
to Ahmed's missive, Dobo caused to be placed upon 
one of the lofty towers of the bastion a large iron 
coffin with two lances, one of them floating the 
Hungarian flag, and the other the Turkish. This 
was to convey to the enemy that on this place either 
the Turks or the Hungarians must perish, and in 
order to give weight to his answer he sallied forth 
with part of his garrison that very night, and brought 
away from the besiegers a great deal of booty. 

Ahmed retorted by opening a fire on the town and 
citadel from 120 guns, some of which sped balls of 
fifty pounds as far as the bastion, but eighteen days 
elapsed before the enemy could summon up suf- 
ficient courage to try an assault. It proved ineffec- 



3IO " THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

tual, the assailants being gallantly repulsed by the 
Hungarians. A few days later a great calamity befell 
the denizens of the citadel. The powder magazine, 
struck by a hostile ball, exploded, and a portion of 
the wall of the citadel was thrown down by the ex- 
plosion. Taking advantage of the wild confusion 
the explosion had created amongst the garrison, the 
enemy directed another assault against their works, 
but quite as Ineffectually as before. They were 
driven back ; Dobo had the wall repaired, and in the 
cellar vaults he established a gunpowder factory, 
which proved sufficient to furnish the necessary 
supply. 

After several unsuccessful minor attacks, the 
Turks prepared for the great final assault. They 
came against the fortress in overwhelming num- 
bers on every side, and already-the garrison began 
to show symptoms of exhaustion and wavering. 
At that moment of supreme danger, however, 
the gallant defenders of the citadel obtained help 
from quite an unlooked-for quarter. Wives, moth- 
ers, and daughters armed themselves, and rushed to 
the walls to fight by the side of their dear ones. 
Some of these amazons robbed the dead of their 
swords, and rushed, thus armed, where the enemy 
was thickest ; others brought boiling water and oil, 
and poured it upon the heads of those who at- 
tempted to scale the walls ; and, wath the help of 
these brave women, the assault was beaten back at 
the most dangerous points. The women of Erlau 
had a large share in the saving of the city, and the 
fame of their heroic devotion still survives in Hun- 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 3II 

gary. The Turks were quite panic-struck ; in one 
day alone they lost 8,000 men : and the soldiers 
loudly declared that God was fighting on the side of 
the Hungarians, and who could struggle against 
God ? After a siege of thirty-eight days, the Turk- 
ish army at length withdrew, and Dob6 and his 
brave men were left in possession of the now ruin- 
ous citadel, thus preserving it for their country. 
The glory of their daring deeds has passed into a 
common saying. Of any one accomplishing a 
great deed, the people say : " He has won the 
fame of Erlau." The place, nevertheless, passed 
under Turkish rule in 1596, its Hungarian com- 
mandant having been compelled by the foreign 
garrison to capitulate. 

In 1566 Sultan Solyman, who, though old, was still 
full of vigor, placed himself at the head of a for- 
midable army, and invaded Hungary for the sixth 
time, his object being to take Erlau and, eventually, 
to march against Vienna. On reaching, with his 
200,000 men and 300 guns, Hungarian territory, he 
was met by the news that Mohammed Pasha, his 
favorite, together with his army, had been massacred 
by the Hungarians at Szigetvar. The aged sultan 
desired to avenge this affront at once. Szigetvar 
and its brave commander, Nicholas Zrinyi, had long 
since been troublesome to the Turks. Zrinyi, the 
scion of a most ancient family, had been engaged 
for years in constant fighting against the Moslem 
power, during those periods even when peace was 
officially established. His possessions and castles 
lay in the border territory, and the fearless man 



312 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

was ever at war with the Osmanlis, making them 
feel the weight of his irresistible sword. The 
storming of Szigetvar had been attempted once 
before, but the enemy had been beaten back with 
great slaughter. And now the great sultan de- 
termined himself to bring him to terms, and to 
invest in person the small fortress. Zrinyi was 
prepared for the worst, and calmly got ready to 
face the formidable foe. Szigetvar was not a for- 
tress of the first rank, but only one of the minor 
strong places. The main feature of its strength 
was that it lay almost entirely surrounded by lake 
and marsh, the only road leading to the place 
being over the bridge communicating with the 
gate. In front of the citadel, on an island, was 
the old town, and south of it, on another island, 
the so-called new town. Szigetvar, therefore, con- 
sisted, in point of fact, of three places, each for- 
tified, but differing from each other in the strength 
of their works of defence. The two towns were, 
in reality, advanced fortifications of the fortress 
itself. Without much aid from any quarter, Zrinyi 
undertook the defence of this small place. His 
own money purchased the necessary ammunition 
and military supplies ; he filled the granaries with 
provisions, produced on his own estates, and from 
his cellar came the necessary wine. There was an 
abundance of provisions in the place, but there 
were not soldiers enough. When it became quite 
certain that the sultan was marching his whole 
army against Szigetvar, all Zrinyi could obtain 
from the king, after repeatedly urging his want 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 313 

of soldiers, was the permission to hire one thou- 
sand foot-soldiers. German soldiers, it is true, 
were offered to him, but those he did not want, 
preferring to select his troops from amongst the 
garrisons of his own castles, so as to have only 
tried men by his side. All the force he could mus- 
ter to oppose to the hundreds of thousands of 
Solyman numbered, at the highest, 2,500 men. He 
had 54 guns and 800 hundredweights of gunpowder, 
and, what was worth more than all that, he and his 
men were inspired by the sublime resolve, rather to 
die on the field of honor than to submit to the cruel 
enemy, who had turned into a desert a large por- 
tion of their beautiful country. His soldiers wor- 
shipped their heroic leader, and enthusiastically 
pledged their devotion by oaths of fidelity and 
obedience. 

On the 31st of July, 1566, the advance guard of 
the enemy showed itself. During the first few days 
several minor engagements took place, but the 
siege began in real earnest on the 7th of August. On 
that day the first assault was attempted ; it was di- 
rected against the weakest point, the new town, 
but it met with no success. A few days later, how- 
ever, Zrinyi himself deemed it expedient to give up 
the defence of this advanced position, and, after hav- 
ing set fire to the new town and reduced it to ashes, 
he abandoned it to the enemy. The besiegers im- 
mediately occupied it and erected their batteries, 
protected by bags and baskets filled with earth, and 
sacks of wool. The batteries were hardly ready 
when the Hungarians surprised them one night 



314 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

and destroyed them all. Chance, however, now fa- 
vored the Turks. A drought had prevailed during 
two months, and the terrain surrounding the old 
town had become so dry, as considerably to facilitate 
the approach of the enemy. The besiegers attempted 
also to drain the lake surrounding the fortress, and 
planned to accomplish this by cutting through the 
great dam around it, so as to provide an outlet for 
the waters. The neighborhood of the dam became 
the scene of fierce struggles. The position was 
heroically defended by the Hungarians, while the 
Turks quite as heroically again and again returned to 
the attack. After a sanguinary contest lasting the 
whole day, the Turks finally took the old town on 
the 19th of August, and Zrinyi with his shrunken 
garrison entirely withdrew to the citadel, after hav- 
ing demolished the bridge leading to the old town. 

Sultan Solyman, however, now thought that lives 
enough had been lost, and he therefore tried to get 
possession of the fortress by peaceable means. He 
tried Zrinyi with fair promises ; he sent him messages 
that he would make him prince of Dalmatia, Croa- 
tia, and Slavonia, and tempted him with treasures 
and estates. Then he tried him with threats. The 
enemy had captured one of the trumpeters of Zrin- 
yi's son, George. The trumpet found in the pris- 
oner's possession had the arms of the Zrinyi family 
painted on it, and Solyman sent this trumpet to 
Szigetvar as a token that Zrinyi's son had been 
taken captive, and threatened that the prisoner 
would be cruelly executed unless the place was sur- 
rendered. Neither promises nor threats were of any 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 315 

avail. 2.x\x\y\ did not for a moment waver, but was 
steadfast in his determination to follow the dictates 
of duty and patriotism alone. 

The wrath of Solyman at the wearlsomeness of 
the siege knew no bounds. He had been patiently 
expecting day after day the reduction of the place, 
and finally, tired of further delay, gave the order for 
a general assault on the 29th of August. The super- 
stitious sultan thought this a particularly lucky day, 
for it was the anniversary of the day on which he 
had taken Belgrade and of the battle at Mohacs. 
The aged ruler, who now. but rarely showed himself 
to his soldiers, mounted his favorite charger and ap- 
peared amongst the Janissaries, in order to rouse and 
encourage them. His troops rushed enthusiastically 
into the fight, for which the artillery and the engi 
neers conducting the siege had made every prepara- 
tion many days before. But Zrinyi was ready and 
wide-awake, and drove the assailants back with great 
slaughter. Aliportug, a Portuguese renegade, who 
was the enemy's most distinguished artillery officer 
and military engineer, and had conducted the siege 
of Sziget, lost his life during this engagement. The 
Hungarians, although they too had suffered severe 
losses, celebrated their triumph with bonfires and 
feasting. They now fondly hoped that their heroic 
resistance would at last induce the royal troops to 
come to the relief of Sziget, and to attack the ex- 
hausted troops of the sultan. Some negotiations to 
that effect had been carried on, but the result was as 
usual; the German commanders allowed the scanty 
garrison to perish. 



3l6 THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 

The besiegers, after their last repulse, passed an 
entire week without renewing the attack. They 
employed this pause to lay unobserved a powerful 
mine under the walls of the bastion, which was fired 
by them on the 5th of September. The explosion 
shattered the walls, the bastion fell down, and a ter- 
rible gale carried the flames into the citadel in every 
direction. All the buildings were soon on fire, and 
the Turks too began a general assault. Hemmed in 
by the dreadful conflagration and the storming ene- 
my, the Hungarians finally yielded. They retired 
from the outer fortification, and Zrinyi with his 
men — who had dwindled down to a few hundred — 
withdrew into the inner or smaller fort. Further re- 
sistance seemed now hopeless, yet Zrinyi did not 
think of capitulating. The cannon-balls of the ene- 
my set on fire the smaller fort on the 7th of Septem- 
ber. Zrinyi, in this extremity, had all his valuables, 
his thousands of gold and silver, his precious vessels 
and plate, brought into the public square of the cita- 
del and cast into the flames. He then divested him- 
self of his armor and helmet, donned a dolmany (a 
short jacket braided in front), and threw over it a 
dark-blue velvet cloak, placing in each of his pockets 
a hundred ducats as a reward to the man who should 
discover his dead body. He wound a costly chain 
of gold around his neck, in place of his helmet he 
put on his head a kalpag (a Hungarian fur cap), orna- 
mented with a heron's feather and diamond rosettes, 
and, arming himself with a curved sabre and a light 
shield, he took with him the keys of the citadel, to 
make sure that they should pass into the enemy's 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 31/ 

hands only upon his death. In this attire he ap- 
peared before his men, who were assembled in the 
courtyard. He addressed them in a speech full of 
his generous spirit, " lauding them for their gallant 
conduct, which would earn for them the respect of 
the Christian world and of generations to come. 
The conclusion of their heroic career," he added, 
"ought to be worthy of their brilliant feats of the 
past. There is but one road before us," he con- 
tinued, "that of honor; all the other courses are 
those of shame. You must either meet with death 
here amid the flames, or must sally forth, and, dearly 
selling your lives, die the deaths of heroes. Choose 
between the two." The kindling words of their 
leader did not fail of their effect. At this supreme 
moment the people of Szigetvar, in their exalted en- 
thusiasm, thought only of their honor. The very 
women wished to follow the men on this their last 
journey. Zrinyi had the bridge lowered and was the 
first to advance upon it. Lawrence Juranics was at 
his side carrying the large banner, and the other offi- 
cers promptly followed. About six hundred people 
joined the sally of their heroic leader, who, after a 
fierce struggle, laid down his devoted life. Of his 
companions-in-arms but few escaped.^ 

Thus, after a glorious resistance of over six weeks, 
did Szigetvar fall into the hands of the Turks. Sultan 
Solyman did not see the victorious end of the siege ; 
he had expired a few days before in his camp. The 
Turkish army returned home, and thus through 
Zrinyi's noble self-sacrifice was the entire campaign 

* See Frontispiece. 



3l8 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

of the enemy rendered barren of results. The for- 
midable army which had menaced the whole country 
wasted its strength at Szigetvar, and the capture of 
this fortress alone cost the enemy 30,000 lives. Zrinyi's 
heroic death roused the admiration and sympathy of 
the whole European world, and his name became 
famous as one of the martyrs of Christianity. 

Nor were the muses silent, in the midst of the 
heroic combats which marked this sad period. 
With so many inspiring themes presenting them- 
selves, the poet, the successor of the mediaeval trou- 
badour, soon appeared on the scene to perpetuate 
in song the memory of the glorious deeds. Among 
others was Sebastian Tin6dy, who described in verse 
some of the most glorious of the episodes in the sad 
chronicle of the sixteenth century. He visitedthe 
scenes of the battles and engagements, sought out 
the survivors or those who had taken a conspicuous 
part, the captains and their brave followers, collect- 
ing the incidents presented in his ballads. Tinody 
did not confine himself, however, to his lyre, but 
was also an adept in the use of arms, and often took 
part in the contests of his time, and had more than 
once been wounded. Another and even more in- 
teresting figure was that of Valentine Balassa, who 
was as gallant a soldier as he was eminent as a poet. 
His works, consisting in part of religious poems and 
partly of lyric songs, have been, for three centuries, 
the favorite reading of the Hungarian people. Some 
of his writings have, however, come down to us in 
manuscript only, and present a most valuable example 
of the poetic genius of the Hungarians of his time. 



THE TURKISH WORLD, 



319 



Balassa lived a stirring, eventful and dangerous life, 
which came to a glorious end on the field of honor. 
At the storming of Gran, in 1597, he was among the 
Hungarian besiegers, and the gallant poet received 
a wound during the engagement, which soon proved 
fatal. 

In the midst of these perpetual struggles and suc- 




pasha's house. 

cessive calamities closed the sixteenth century, and 
began the seventeenth quite as inauspiciously for the 
Hungarians. Until now they had cherished the 
hope that the Hapsburg kings would rescue them 
from the cruel rule of the Osmanlis. But after a 
lapse of seventy years they not only saw their hopes 
of liberation from the hated yoke destroyed, but had 
the mortification of witnessing the continual spread 
of the Turkish power. Besides, a sharp antagonism 



320 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

of another kind gradually arose between the nation 
and their king. The national spirit, in spite of the 
sad condition of the people, asserted itself more and 
more, and frequently came into collision with the 
foreign royal dynasty, whose seat of government was 
without the frontiers of the country. This antago- 
nism was not only of a national, but also of a religious 
character, for, while the largest part of Hungary was 
overwhelmingly Protestant, the kings of this period 
were among the staunchest supporters of the Church 
of Rome. In addition to this, the kings, who were 
at the same time emperors of Germany, had brought 
themselves, by their autocratic actions, into direct 
opposition to the constitution of the country and to 
the rights and privileges guaranteed by law. As a 
consequence a fierce constitutional contest was 
raging, during the whole of the seventeenth century, 
between the nation and their kings, which quite 
overshadowed the struggle against the Turks. In 
these contests the Hungarian people leaned for 
support chiefly on the principality of Transylvania, 
whose rulers, Stephen Bocskay, Gabriel Bethlen, 
George Rakoczy I., not only made their comparatively 
small country the bulwark of Hungarian nationality 
and of the Protestant Church, but raised her to a posi- 
tion of exceptional influence in European politics. 

Before continuing to sketch the period of the 
Turkish rule in Hungary, we will take a rapid glance 
at the rise of Protestantism amongst the Hungarians. 

The fall of Luther's hammer upon the door of the 
castle-church of Wittenberg, as he nailed to it his 
famous theses, reverberated even in Hungary, and 




HUNGARIAN PEASANTS IN AN INN. 



322 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

produced an intense commotion in that distant coun- 
try. The period of the renaissance, the revival of art 
and literature, had prepared all active and inquiring 
minds for changes in church and religion. The coun- 
try had maintained an active intercourse, political, 
commercial, and cultural, with the western nations, 
and when Luther began the great work in Germany, 
which was to mark a new era in the history of the 
world, his ideas spread like wildfire all over Hungary, 
and, especially, found favor amongst the German in- 
habitants, who formed at that time an important 
element of her population. The cities of Buda, 
Oedenburg (Soprony), Presburg, the wealthy mining 
regions in the north, the Kiralyfold in Transylvania, 
were settled by Germans. Many of their clergy, at- 
tracted by ties of national kinship had finished their 
studies in Germany, and their merchants were closely 
connected in business with those of the old father- 
land. Owing to the intimate relations thus established 
between the Germans of Hungary and their brethren 
abroad, the teachings of Luther gained almost as 
rapidly ground among them as among their country- 
men in Germany, where the new doctrines had first 
been promulgated. In the course of a few years the 
new movement had assumed such formidable propor- 
tions that it attracted the attention of the whole 
nation. 

The Catholic clergy, threatened in their supremacy, 
were the first to take the field in defence of the 
Church thus assailed. Round them very soon rallied 
that class of the nation which, alone, enjoyed politi- 
cal rights in the land, the entire nobility. In siding 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 323 

with the Catholic clergy, in this conflict against the 
Reformation and its followers, the Lutherans, the 
nobility were by no means actuated by religious mo- 
tives only. Their hostile attitude was rather owing 
to important political considerations. The throne 
was then occupied by Louis IL, who was of Polish 
extraction, the same youthful king who, noted 
for his frivolous character, expiated the errors of 
his reign upon the battle-field of Mohacs. This un- 
fortunate ruler was personally as indifferent to religion 
as to every thing ^else involving a serious turn of 
mind. But his wife. Queen Mary, the sister of the 
German emperor, Charles V., was all the more en- 
thusiastic in the defence of Luther's teachings. The 
queen and her German courtiers, by exerting a bane- 
ful influence over the affairs of Hungary, had incurred 
the ill-will of the nobility, which was identical with 
the national party. This party, with a view to strik- 
ing a blow at the German and Lutheran sympathiz- 
ers surrounding the king, enacted from the outset 
most rigorous laws against the Lutherans. Thus, as 
early as 1523, a law was promulgated declaring Luth- 
erans and their protectors (clearly indicating by the 
latter term the German courtiers of the king) foes to 
the Holy Virgin Mary, the patroness of Hungary, and 
as such, punishable with death and confiscation of 
their property. The persecutions against the adher- 
ents of the new faith began immediately. Luther's 
works and writings, which had been largely imported 
into Hungary, were seized and consigned to the 
flames. The Reformation, nevertheless, steadily 
gained ground. 



324 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

In the diets which, owing to the attacks threat- 
ening the country from abroad and troubles at home, 
were then held three or four times annually, the 
national party, headed by John Szapolyai, one of 
the most powerful lords of the land, was constantly 
urging the cause of the Catholic Church. But there 
were other political reasons, besides their antipathy 
tO' the German courtiers, which determined the 
national party to persist in their antagonism to the 
new faith. The Osmanlis were continually harassing 
the southern frontiers, and the country was always 
on the brink of a war with them. The nobility, 
representing the nation, felt instinctively that a 
catastrophe was near at hand, which Hungary, by 
her unaided strength alone, would be unable to avert. 
They had to look for foreign aid, and effective help 
from abroad could be expected only from the two 
most powerful rulers in Christendom, the pope and 
the emperor of Germany, both of whom were Luther's 
most determined opponents. They succeeded in 
securing the good-will of the pope, who, having no 
armies at his disposal to aid Hungary, assisted the 
country by abundant supplies of money. In return 
the nobility deemed it their sacred duty to keep a 
faithful watch and ward over the interests of the 
Catholic Church, and, in order to do so effectively, 
they inaugurated relentless measures against the 
Lutheran heretics. In 1525 another law was passed 
against the votaries of the new creed, ordering their 
extermination throughout the country, and declaring 
that Lutherans, wherever they were found, should 
suffer death by fire. This cruel law began its abom- 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 325 

inable work, and the funeral stakes soon sent forth 
their lurid flames. The religious persecutions thus 
inaugurated hastened the downfall of the Hungarian 
kingdom. 

The dreadful catastrophe at Mohacs, in 1526, forced 
Hungary into untrodden roads, not only politically, 
but also in the matter of religion. The death of 
her king, and the slaughter of so many prelates and 
of thousands of nobles, on the fated battle-field, 
gave a violent shock to the organization of both 
state and church, and rendered easy the further ex- 
tension of the Reformation. Many of the great lords 
and nobles, who hitherto had been the most ardent 
supporters of the Catholic Church, speedily became, 
from political motives or private interest, zealous 
apostles of the new faith, so that the doctrines of 
Luther, before principally confined to the inhabitants 
of the cities, now found many adherents among the 
magnates. The bondmen, too, who, even in matters 
of religion, were compelled to obey the behests of 
their masters, embraced the religion of their lords. 
As a consequence, the victory of the Reformation be- 
came, a few decades only after the battle of Mohacs, 
complete through the larger part of Hungary. The 
doctrines of Luther had paved the way for the teach- 
ings of Calvin. The latter, owing to their puritanic 
spirit and democratic tendencies, which suited the 
rooted predilection of the Magyar race for self-gov- 
ernment, spread mostly over the Hungarian section 
of the country. The religion of Calvin, or the Hel- 
vetic confession, had such a hold upon the Hun- 
garian-speaking population that it was soon desig- 



326 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

nated by the special name of the Hungarian faith, 
while the Lutheran tenets were held chiefly by 
the German denizens of the cities and the Slavic 
inhabitants of the upper country. The ancient 
Roman Church was confined to a comparatively small 
territory, and during the seventeenth century hardly 
numbered one seventh of the population. 

One of the most shining pages in the law records of 
Hungary — an enactment granting to the two Protes- 
tant churches equal rights with the Catholic Church 
— is connected with the name of Stephen Bocskay. 
Although the Catholic Church had, during the six- 
teenth century, lost most of its followers, yet legally, 
and owing to the circumstance that the Hapsburg 
kings were the most zealous propagators of the 
Roman faith, it continued to be the only recognized 
church, and to exercise an unduly preponderating in- 
fluence in public life, which, at that time, bore an 
exclusively religious impress. The Hungarian mag- 
nates and noblemen, then almost all Protestants, 
under the leadership of Prince Stephen Bocskay, 
took up arms against this privileged position of the 
Catholic Church, as well as in defence of the laws of 
the land, and succeeded in obtaining, in 1606, at the 
peace of Vienna, a law whereby perfect equality be- 
tween the Protestant churches and the Catholic 
Church was established. This great victory, achiev- 
ed by the Protestants, had the effect of rousing the 
Catholic Church to energetic action. The anti-re- 
formation movement began in Hungar}^, as it had 
already all over Europe, and produced, under the 
direction of Cardinal Peter Pazmany, the archbishop 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 327 

of Gran, in a comparatively short time, the most 
surprising results. In the course of a few decades, 
the most influential and leading families of the aris- 
tocracy returned to the fold of the Catholic Church. 
The mass of the people, however, the nobility, the 
inhabitants of the cities, and the peasantry, still re- 
mained Protestants, and when the Transylvanian, 
princes, Gabriel Bethlen and George Rakoczy I., were 
about to engage in war against the Hapsburgs, they 
readily rallied around these bearers of the standard 
of the national faith. The peace of Linz, a confir- 
mation of the treaty of Vienna, was concluded un- 
der Rakoczy, again solemnly proclaiming the per- 
fect equality of the Protestant churches with the 
Roman Catholic Church, an equality, however, which, 
in point of fact, was never put into practice. The 
written law and their good right was of no use to 
the Protestants, for the power was gradually slipping 
from their hands. Under the patronage of the royal 
court, the anti-reformation movement had made great 
conquests amongst the lower classes of the people, 
and sometimes by the use of violence, sometimes by 
other means, whole districts and large territories 
again became Catholic. Elated by these successes, 
the court of Vienna for a long time ignored its 
promise of freeing the Hungarian people from the 
Turkish yoke, and about sixty years elapsed with- 
out any hostilities against the sultans. The chief 
endeavor of the court was forcibly to deprive the 
Hungarian nation of her constitutional institutions 
which were based upon her nationality, and to sub- 
ject to imperial absolutism the people, jealous of 



328 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

their liberties and accustomed to freedom. These 
unconstitutional proceedings on the part of the gov- 
ernment produced popular risings and party strife, 
and were, in their sad consequences, fatal to thou- 
sands of fanatics, spreading misery and poverty even 
to those parts of the land which, from their geo- 
graphical positions, had been exempt from the 
ravages of the Turks. 

The cessation of hostilities did not interrupt the 
continued ravages and devastations. Officially, it is 
true, there was, for about sixty years, peace between 
the royal court and the sultans, but this did not pre- 
vent the latter from constantly indulging in minor 
military operations. In 1663, however, when Leopold 
I., who was of an eminently peaceful disposition, 
held the throne, the Turks officially declared war. 
Although it had already then become apparent that 
the Turkish empire was impaired in strength, and, 
more particularly, that her military organization had 
degenerated, yet the Turks were eager for new bat- 
tles, and war was determined upon in Constanti- 
nople. Hostilities soon commenced, and at St. 
Gotthard, in 1664, the Turks got their first repulse, 
for Christian arms there dealt them a heavy blow. 
Not once during the two centuries that had gone by 
were the Turks so overwhelmingly defeated on the 
continent as on this occasion. Enslaved Hungary 
breathed more freely, and already thought that the 
long-hoped-for hour of shaking off Moslem thraldom 
had arrived. But she was doomed to disappoint- 
ment. The brilliant triumph was not turned to 
Hungary's acivantage in Vienna. A hasty peace was 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 329 

concluded with the terrified Turks, and thus was 
prolonged for many decades the Turkish rule, which, 
though enfeebled, was still ruinous to Hungary. 

It was at this period, too, that a man of great 
genius, and a true patriot, preached, with genuine 
apostolic zeal, a crusade against the Turks. His 
name was Nicholas Zrlnyl. The namesake and great- 
grandson of the hero of Szigetvar, he was himself a 
gallant soldier and famous poet, and has Immortal- 
ized, In a grand Hungarian epic, the martyrdom of 
his heroic ancestor. By his writings he fired the 
hearts of his countrymen, and his life was passed on 
bloody fields, in perpetual warfare against the Turks. 
From his youth he had been Inspired by one thought 
only, to live and die for his country, and, although 
a devout Catholic, he nobly proclaimed religious tol- 
eration, at a time when the country was torn by re- 
ligious dissensions. His educated mind led him to 
cultivate poetry, and to study the works of classical 
authors on history and philosophy, but his chief in- 
terest always remained the battle-field and the strug- 
gle against the Turks. On one of his estates he had 
a small fortress erected, called Zerinvar, from which 
the Hungarians were in the habit of sallying forth 
into the neighboring Turkish territory. This little 
place was a thorn In the side of the Turk, and the 
main cause of the declaration of war of 1663. Zrinyl, 
however, defended it gallantly, and beat back the 
assault of the enemy. In the course of the war he 
took several Turkish fortresses, and burned down 
and destroyed the bridge across the Drave, 4,000 
paces in length, near Eszek, which had been built 



330 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

under Solyman, and which, being the main road 
leading into the western part of the country, was de- 
fended by trenches and other fortifications. The 
repute made by Zrinyi's extraordinary feats of war 
resounded in all Europe, and he was loaded down 
with distinctions by the pope, Louis XIV. of France, 
and by the princes of Gernlany and Italy, as the 
hero of Christendom. In the zenith of his glory, he 
lost his life by a cruel accident. While engaged in 
the chase, a wild boar rushed upon him, and wounded 
him mortally. He was found by his servants, lying 
on the ground, bathed in his own blood, and ex- 
pired shortly afterward. All Hungary and Christian 
Europe lamented the loss of the distinguished sol- 
dier and poet. 

His devout wish, to see the Hungarian nation 
freed from the oppressive rule of the Turks, did not 
approach its fulfilment until twenty years after his 
death. But even then it was not the royal court 
which accomplished the work of liberation, for, in- 
stead of making preparations in that direction, the 
government initiated the most cruel persecutions 
against the Protestants, compelling them to resort 
to armed resistance. The struggle between the 
Kuruczes, or the armed Hungarians, and the imperial 
troops was at its height, when Kara Mustapha Pasha, 
the ambitious grand-vizier of Sultan Mohammed IV., 
saw in this intestine war a favorable opportunity to 
conquer the remaining territory of Hungary, and 
even to menace in his own residence, Vienna, the 
emperor of the Romans. Leopold L, the emperor 
of Germany and king of Hungary, did all in his power 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 33 I 

to conciliate the Turks and to delay the war. But 
Kara Mustapha remained inexorable, and boldly 
ventured on an enterprise which was destined to be 
fatal to him, and which, after a long and sanguinary 
contest, finally led to the overthrow of the Turkish 
power in Europe and the liberation of Hungary. 

In the spring of 1683 the sultan and his grand- 
vizier commenced their march at the head of a force 
numbering 250,000 men, carrying with them 300 
cannon. In Hungary they were joined by the so- 
called Kurucz king. Count Emeric Tokolyi, and 
his adherents. This tremendous army was already 
under the walls of Vienna in July, but two months 
of a severe siege had already elapsed and the city 
could not be taken. The Christian forces, led by 
John Sobieski, King of Poland, and Charles, Duke of 
Lorraine, were meanwhile hastening to the relief 
of the city, and on the 12th of September they suc- 
ceeded in completely routing the Turkish army, which 
lost 60,000 men, the remainder scattering in wild 
flight in every direction. This was the last great 
campaign undertaken by the Osmanlis against the 
Western world. They could never recuperate from 
the effects of the defeat then suffered, and the great 
calamity which befell the Turkish power rendered it, 
at length, possible for Hungary, the bulwark of Chris- 
tianity, which had been the scene of continual wars 
during a century and a half, to regain her liberty. 

Leopold I., who had seen his capital menaced by 
the Turks, now took energetic measures to continue 
the war, and very soon his forces recaptured Gran, 
the ancient seat of the primate of Hungary, which 



332 THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 

for a long time had owned the Turkish rule. 
The whole line of the Danube fell into the hands of 
the Christians, and in 1684 an attempt was made to 
capture Buda, the once famous capital of Hungary. 
The siege, however, failed on this occasion, in spite of 
the heroic efforts made by the Hungarians. But they 
were more fortunate in the case of another powerful 
Turkish stronghold, Neuhausel (Ersekujvar), the re- 
capture of which, a brilliant military feat, was made the 
occasion for feasting and merriment in many European 
cities. At length, in 1686, Buda, too, was restored 
to Hungary. Volunteers flocked into Hungary, 
from every part of Europe, when the news spread 
that Duke Charles of Lorraine, the commander-in- 
chief, was making preparations for the recapture of 
the ancient and famous seat of the Hungarian kings. 
A powerful army gathered around his banners, and in 
the middle of June the duke arrived under the 
walls of Buda, which was defended by Abdi Pasha, 
then seventy years old, and a garrison of 16,000 
determined soldiers. The siege lasted seventy- 
seven days, during which time the Turks made 
two sallies, and the grand-vizier made three attempts 
to come to the relief of the garrison, but the enemy 
was each time driven back by the Christian forces. 
The strongly fortified city, which had been heroically 
defended, fell, at length, after five unsuccessful as- 
saults, on the 2d of September, 1686, into the hands 
of Duke Charles. On the afternoon of that day, 
at four o'clock, began the sixth assault ; 9,000 Chris- 
tian heroes resolutely stormed with fixed bayonets 
(an arm at that time still new and here employed for 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 333 

the first time) the walls which had been reduced to 
ruins by the guns of the besiegers. After a sanguin- 
ary contest lasting about one hour, a gallant Hun- 
garian, David Petnehazy, succeeded in penetrating, 
first, with his 800 hayduks, into Buda, whose garri- 
son and inhabitants were almost entirely put to 
the sword. Thus after a lapse of 145 years was 
Buda freed from the Turkish yoke, and the whole 
Christian world was jubilant over the glorious news. 
Many bloody battles, however, occupying a con- 
siderable period of time, had to be fought before the 
Moslem oppressors were entirely swept away from 
Hungarian territory. Duke Charles marched to 
the southern parts of Hungary and destroyed the 
Turkish army near Mohacs, there, where 161 years 
before the Hungarian army had been annihilated by 
the Moslems. Soon after, Transylvania, too, passed 
under the supremacy of the king of Hungary. All 
the principal fortresses and towns were successively 
occupied by the royal troops, and when, in 1691, 
a Turkish army numbering 100,000 men was sent 
again to Hungary by the Sublime Porte, they were 
completely routed near Szalankemen. It was one 
of the most sanguinary battles of that century ; 
the grand-vizier himself, the aga of the Janissaries, 
seventeen pashas, and 20,000 Turkish soldiers lost 
their lives during the engagement. During a few 
years succeeding this great battle, lesser engagements 
only were fought, but hostilities never ceased. In 
1697, however, Duke Eugene of Savoy, the ''noble 
knight " and illustrious general, assumed the com- 
mandership of the royal forces. In the battle near 



334 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

Zenta he utterly annihilated, after a contest of two 
hours, a Turkish army led by Sultan Mustapha II., 
inflicting frightful losses upon the enemy; io,ooo 
Turks met their death in the waters of the Theiss, 
20,000 were killed, and among the dead were the grand- 
vizier, 4 pashas, and 13 begler beys. These succes- 
sive disasters and the frightful loss of men, amount- 
ing to many hundreds of thousands in the course of 
the fifteen years of warfare, finally prevailed upon the 
sultan to accept the terms of peace proposed by Leo- 
pold I. The treaty of peace was s'gned at Carlowitz 
in 1699, and under its terms Transylvania and the 
greater part of the Hungarian territory was restored 
to the king of Hungary by the sultan, but a smaller 
portion, lying between Transylvania and the Theiss, 
the ancient county of Temes, was still permitted to 
remain in Turkish hands. The court of Vienna, in- 
stead of attempting to regain the remaining terri- 
tory, elated by the recent military successes, again 
renewed its attacks upon the nationality of the Hun- 
garians and their ancient liberties, which it had al- 
ways looked upon with decided dislike, and the 
complete subversion of which it now attempted. 
The nobility, weary of the absolutism of the court, 
combined at last with the peasantry, who had 
suffered severely under the lawlessness and illegal 
exactions of the soldiery, to raise the standard of re- 
bellion, under the lead of Francis Rakoczy II. The 
great national struggle for liberty was initiated by 
electing Rakoczy king of Hungary and Transylvania, 
and, very soon, the Kurucz troops roamed as far as 
Austria. Later on, however, the fortunes of war 



THE TURKISH WORLD. 335 

changed, and Rakoczy retired to Poland hoping 
to obtain aid from the Russian Czar Peter the Great. 
During his absence he entrusted one of his generals, 
Alexander Karolyi, with the command of his army, 
who, however, instead of continuing the struggle, 
made his peace with the king. The peace of Szatmar, 
in 171 1, finally put an end to the period of constitu- 
tional struggles between the nation and the king. 

Now, at last, came the time for the still enslaved 
Hungarian territory to be freed, from Turkish rule. 
The new war began in 1716. The imperial troops 
were again commanded by Prince Eugene, who, 
once more defeating the Turks near Peterwardein 
wrested, at last, Temesvar and the county of Temes 
from the Turks, in whose possession they had re- 
mained one hundred and sixty-four years. At the 
peace, concluded in 1718, the Sultan relinquished 
also his claim to that part of the country, and thus 
the entire territory belonging at the present day to 
the crown of Hungary was at last freed from Turk- 
ish thraldom. 

There was now an end to the Islam rlile in Hun- 
gary, as there had been to the same rule in Spain. 
But whilst the Moors had immortalized their name 
by memorials of a grand civilization, leaving behind 
them flourishing and wealthy cities, numerous works 
of art, and marvels of architecture, the Turks left 
Hungary ruined and devastated. Throughout the 
whole territory of the reconquered country, only a 
few miserable villages could be met with here and 
there, population had sunk to the lowest ebb, end- 
less swamps covered the fertile soil of the once 



33^ 



THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 



flourishing Alfold (Lowland), and the genius of the 
Hungarian nation had now to engage in the arduous 
labor of subduing, by the arts of peace and civiliza- 
tion, the sterile waste they had regained at last by 
their bravery and endurance. The work, hard as it 
was, was done. For a century and a half the severe 
task of colonizing and civilizing has been going on 
bravely, until finally that tract of land, which they 
recovered from the Turks an uninhabited desert, has 
grown to be populous, flourishing, and one of the 
richest granaries of Europe. 






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CHAPTER XIII. 

THE AUSTRIAN RULE, 1526-1780. 

The preceding chapter gave an account of the 
varying fortunes of that part of Hungary which, 
although geographically appertaining to the domains 
of the crown of St. Stephen, was virtually occupied 
and ruled by the Turks, and this account was 
brought down to the time when the country suc- 
ceeded in shaking off the foreign yoke. The thrill- 
ing episodes of that sad era deserved a place by 
themselves. Yet in describing these tragic events 
but little was said of the kings of the ruling dynasty 
and the destinies of that portion of the country 
which remained subject to their rule, or so much 
only was touched upon in a general way as was 
absolutely necessary for a proper understanding of 
the occurrences related there. This hiatus will now 
be supplied, by resuming, in a succinct form, the 
historical narrative of the events following the disas- 
trous battle of Mohacs. 

We have already seen that at no time was the 
Turkish power so strong as during the first half of 
the sixteenth century, and that Hungary was never 
so weak as after the death of Matthias Hunyadi. 
The innovations of Matthias had broken down the 

337 



33^ THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

ancient military organization, which recruited its 
armies from the ranks of the nobility and the armed 
bands in their train, and established in its place a 
standing army. But on the death of the genius 
which had called it into existence, the standing army 
also disappeared. We have described elsewhere the 
sad fate of his valiant " black guard." The disas- 
trous reverses at Belgrade and Mohacs were the con- 
sequence, and it became evident that Hungary, 
single-handed, could not withstand the power of the 
Osmanlis. 

Under these circumstances the nation was com- 
pelled to look for assistance from abroad, and, in 
searching for a powerful alliance, it was quite natural 
that public attention should be drawn to the house 
of Hapsburg, the great authority and influence of 
which gave the fairest promise of effectual support 
to the prostrate country. This dynasty occupied at 
that time a front rank amongst the reigning families ; 
its rule extended over Austria, Germany, the wealthy 
Netherlands, Spain, with her American colonies and 
dependencies, NapleSj Sicily, and Sardinia — an im- 
mense domain, of which it might have been then truly 
said that " the sun never set in it." No dynasty, since 
the Csesars, had controlled the destinies of so many 
nations and of so vast a territory. Ferdinand, a scion 
of that influential dynasty, who at this time was also 
elected king of Bohemia, owed his elevation to the 
throne of Hungary to hopes and arguments of this 
kind. He gave the people assurances of support on 
the part of his family ; he vowed to respect the rights 
and liberties of the nation, and promised to live in the 



THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 



339 



country and to confide the conduct of her affairs to 
Hungarians only. 

Every thing turned out quite differently from 
what the royal electors had hoped and expected. 
The Turks were decidedly averse to any augmenta- 
tion of the power of the Hapsburgs by the acquisi- 
tion of the Hungarian throne. They desired to see 
Hungary under a separate king of her own, and to 




A CSIKOS. 



accomplish this the Turks shrank from no sacrifices, 
and succeeded in embroiling the unfortunate country 
in continual wars. Unhappy Hungary was placed 
between the hammer and the anvil. The Turks 
were unwilling to yield, and the Hapsburgs, quite as 
reluctant to give up the country, were, nevertheless, 
unable to defend it. The result of the cruel war, 
waged for over thirty years, was, in the end, that 
Hungary was torn into three parts. The heart of 



340 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

the land, the Alfold, was seized by the Turks ; the 
hilly plateau of Transylvania was ruled by native 
princes, acknowledging the suzerainty of the sultan ; 
and the remaining portion only, the northern and 
western part, owned the supremacy of the Hapsburgs 
in their capacity of kings of Hungary. Thus the 
new dynasty, so far from proving a protection to 
the country, rather led to its dismemberment. 

The condition of Transylvania was, comparatively 
speaking, more favorable than that of either of the 
two other sections of the country. She had to pay 
her tribute to the Turks, but beyond that she expe- 
rienced no interference on the part of her paramount 
lord. She was allowed to elect her own rulers, to 
convene her national assemblies, to keep up an army 
of her own, and to live as before under the ancient 
laws of Hungary. The Alfold, in the hands of the 
Turks, was governed in Turkish fashion. The Turks 
never settled down in the country they conquered ; 
they only garrisoned it, as it were. The government 
and the spahis were the new landlords, and their chief 
care was, not to watch over the welfare of the people, 
but to fleece them and to extort from them heavy 
taxes and all sorts of vexatious imposts. The effects 
of such an administration became soon visible. The 
ancient culture perished, the population gradually 
decreased, and the once fertile soil relapsed into 
barrenness. 

Nor were the complaints fewer and less bitter in 
the western and northern parts, ruled by the Haps- 
burg kings of Hungary. The hope of obtaining, 
through these kings, aid from the West gradually 



THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 34 1 

vanished. The nation, besides, was quick to perceive 
that Hungary was looked upon by the Hapsburgsas 
an unimportant province, rather than an independent 
country. The king did not reside in Hungary, but 
in Vienna, which was the permanent seat of his gov- 
ernment, and all the remonstrances coming from the 
various diets against this state of things led only to 
bare promises. There were numerous grievances 
besides. After the first vacancy in the dignity of a 
palatine no other palatine had been appointed, Ger- 
man advisers alone were listened to in affairs con- 
cerning Hungary, the country was flooded with 
German officials and soldiers, and distinguished 
Hungarian magnates were thrown into prison with- 
out due form of law. These evils were already felt 
under Ferdinand, the first Hapsburg king, but they 
still increased under his successor. King Maximilian 
(i 564-1 576). The latter proceeded quite openly in 
his anti-national policy. He promised Germany for 
himself and his successors, in return for her aid, to 
use every endeavor to bring about the annexation 
of Hungary to that country. The Diet of 1567, 
in enumerating the many abuses of the govern- 
ment, bitterly inveighed against the foreign sol- 
diery, charging them with arbitrarily raising tolls, 
taking the thirtieth part, imposing unlawful taxes 
on the communes, wasting the substance of the 
peasantry and robbing them of their last penny, 
and, finally, selling their children into slavery to the 
Turks. The Diet declared that, '' There is no salva- 
tion, no hope for us ; we have no other alternative 
but to leave our native land and emigrate to foreign 
parts." 



342 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

These complaints remained unheeded by Maxi- 
milian, nor was his son and successor, Rudolph 
(i 576-1608), more disposed to remedy the ills com- 
plained of. The office of the palatine still remained 
vacant ; the affairs of Hungary were administered, 
without consulting the Hungarians, by a court cabi- 
net and a military council. Rudolph's reply to the 
remonstrances of the Estates of the realm, that 
'' these things have been in practice long since," was 
certainly a cynical apology for the continuance of 
abuses. Thus was the continual infringement of the 
law claimed to have become a law in itself, and in- 
dependent Hungary became virtually subject to the 
authority of foreigners. The temper of the diets 
which met during the first years of Rudolph's reign 
clearly indicated the state of irritation produced by 
the king's presumptuous treatment of the liberties 
of the nation ; the exasperated Estates spoke of re- 
fusing to vote subsidies, and some of them, although 
in the minority, threatened even to join either Po- 
land or Turkey. Rudolph, wearied with these bois- 
terous scenes, turned his back upon the country, and 
the nation did not see her king for twenty-five years. 

The country was compelled patiently to suffer the 
encroachments on her ancient rights, for to no quar- 
ter could she look for help. Alone she was too 
weak to right herself, and the only alliances that of- 
fered themselves were either the German or Turkish. 
A sad alternative, indeed, for the Turks on the one 
hand never ceased to harass and devastate the 
country, threatening even to absorb the territory yet 
free, and the Germans on the other utterly ignored 



THE AUSTRIAN- RULE. 343 

the constitution and liberties of Hungary, although 
the kings on their election and coronation always 
swore to respect and to defend both. The Turks 
were extirpating the nation, whilst the Germans 
were trying to rob her of her Hungarian nation- 
ality. The Germans, being considered the lesser 
evil, carried the day, and hopes were besides enter- 
tained that, after all, Germany would finally rid the 
country of the Turks. These hopes were further 
encouraged after the death of Solyman (1566), when 
it became apparent that the Turkish power was de- 
clining from day to day. But the country was 
doomed to disappointment, for the Viennese govern- 
ment, instead of arraying itself against Turkey, was 
on the eve of trying the patience of her people again 
with measures and acts hostile to their nationality. 

The great obstacle to the Germanizing schemes 
had always been the Hungarian Diet and the stiff- 
necked independence of the nobles composing it. 
It was impossible for the government to do away 
with the diet as it had done away with the dignity 
of palatine and the other exalted Hungarian of- 
fices, as the grant of taxes and soldiers required in 
an emergency depended upon the good will of the 
diet. If there was no diet in session, no supplies 
of money and soldiers could be voted. The govern- 
ment therefore determined to resort to measures 
which would bend the majority of the diet to its 
will. The royal free cities had at that time the priv- 
ilege of sending members to the diet of Hungary to 
represent them. But the influence at the diet of 
these municipalities, of whom there were but few. 



344 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

and most of these with German inhabitants, was very 
sHght. A great number of private boroughs were 
made by the government royal free cities, and an 
attempt was made to use the new members sent by 
these constituencies as a counterpoise to the hostile 
nobles in the diet. But the nobility loudly protested 
against this innovation. Some of those who protested 
were charged with treason, but, unable to obtain their 
conviction before a Hungarian tribunal, the govern- 
ment had them brought to Vienna before a military 
council, which pronounced them guilty of the charge 
against them. One of the victims of these illegal 
proceedings, a certain Illeshazy, a wealthy magnate, 
saved his life by flight only. His immense estates 
were confiscated, and an inquiry into his case fully 
proved that the cruel sentence passed upon him was 
not meant so much to punish his supposed crime, as 
it was intended to be a means of getting possession 
of his vast property. But the persecutions of the gov- 
ernment did not stop there; the turn of the Protestants 
soon came. Thus was one of the captains ordered to 
take away by violetice from the Protestants the cathe- 
dral at Kassa, and to hand it over to the Catholics. 
The city authorities of Kassa recaptured the church, 
but it was taken from them again by force, and the city 
was mulcted by the government in a heavy fine of 
money. This outrage might well excite indignation 
at a time when three fourths of the population of 
Hungary were Protestants. It became evident that 
the German influence was bent upon attacking the 
people in their liberties as well as their religion, and 
whilst the government was yet inclined to show 



THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 345 

some indulgence to the Catholics, it was determined 
to show no kind of mercy to the Protestants of the 
country. 

The excitement and indignation of the people, 
throughout the whole land, at these lawless pro- 
ceedings, were reflected in the temper of the Diet 
which met in 1604. They protested against the ille- 
gal persecutions, stood up for the freedom of worship, 
and warned the government not to stir up dissen- 
sions amongst the followers of the antagonistic 
churches. A fresh injury, however, was added to 
those complained of, by Rudolph's arbitrarily sup- 
plementing the 2 1st article enacted by the Diet with 
a 22d article, in which the Diet was enjoined from 
discussing religious topics ; intimations were thrown 
out at the same time that heresy was to be per- 
secuted. 

This 22d article was the spark which set ablaze all 
the inflammable material that had accumulated in 
the country since the time that the Hapsburgs had 
occupied the throne of Hungary. The North 
of Hungary, allied with Transylvania, rose in arms, 
and the entire Upper Country was soon gathering 
in the camp of Stephen Bocskay, the prince of 
Transylvania. The Turks favored the insurrection 
and proclaimed Bocskay king of Hungary, bestowing 
upon him, at the same time, a crown of gold. The 
insurgents aimed at the entire overthrow of the 
Haspburgs, but the politic Bocskay opposed this, 
being disinclined to deliver up the whole of Hun- 
gary to the tender mercies of the Osmanlis. Bocskay 
saw in the Germans a counterpoise to the overwean- 



34^ THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

ing power of the Turks and counselled a policy of 
conciliation. The result of his counsels was the 
peace of Vienna, concluded in 1606, in which the 
abuses complained of were remedied, and constitu- 
tional government and freedom of worship were 
guaranteed for all time to come. 

Remarkable as were the results of Bocskay's ris- 
ing, they were quite eclipsed by the effects of the 
astute policy inaugurated by him as the ruler of 
Transylvania, a policy which he bequeathed to his 
princely successors, enjoining upon them in his last 
will always to adhere to it. It consisted in maintain- 
ing, at all hazards, the independence of Transylvania, 
in order to enable her, according to the necessities 
of the moment, either to combine with the Turks 
in defence of the Hungarian nationality against the 
encroachments of Germanism, or joining the Ger- 
mans to keep, with their aid, the Turks out of the re- 
maining Hungarian territory. This course, marked 
by rare political acumen and inspired by the purest 
patriotism, was effectively aided by the mutual jeal- 
ousies of the Turks and Germans, and enabled the 
Transylvanian princes ultimately to achieve their 
noble aim of saving the liberties of Hungary, their 
common country. 

The terms of the peace of Vienna were soon for- 
gotten by the Viennese government, and its prosely- 
ting Catholicism brought it again into collision with 
the Hungarian Protestants. The successor of Ru- 
dolph, Matthias (1608-1619), succeeded in restraining 
to some extent the outbreaks of hatred by which the 
various sectaries were animated, but hardly had the 



THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 34/ 

succession to the throne of Bohemia been secured to 
his cousin Ferdinand (11.), who had been brought 
up by the Jesuits, and was their zealous pupil, than 
the Czech Protestants took up arms, severed their 
connection with the Hapsburgs, and inaugurated the 
religious war which raged in Germany for thirty years, 
and which stands in history unexampled for its 
horrors (1618). 

This movement could not leave Hungary indiffer- 
ent. In Hungary, too, Romanizing was being strenu- 
ously carried on. The Jesuits gained a foothold in 
the country, and bringing with them their schools, 
books, and well-organized machinery they soon suc- 
ceeded, under the patronage of the government of 
Vienna, in supplanting the Protestants. Peter Paz- 
many, who, from a simple Jesuit, had risen to the 
primacy of Hungary, was the life and soul of the 
proselyting movement. He brought to the work of 
Romanizing the country an irresistible eloquence, in- 
vincible arguments in his writings, and unsurpassed 
religious zeal. All the great powers of his master- 
mind, and the resources of his enormous wealth 
were employed by him to add to the Catholic fold. 
By his own personal influence alone, thirty of the 
most conspicuous Hungarian families returned to 
the Catholic faith of their ancestors, families among 
whom some owned domains larger than a dozen of 
the smaller principalities of Germany. Protestantism 
gradually lost ground, its followers became a minor- 
ity in the Diet, and the Catholics became daily more 
arroeant. Under these circumstances the Protestants 
of Hungary (where in 161 8 Ferdinand was elected 



348 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

king, to succeed on the death of Matthias) could not 
look on with unconcern when their Czech brethren 
rose in arms nor could they permit their defeat by 
the Catholic court, for such an event was sure to hasten 
the moment when they, in their turn, would have to 
resist the violent measures ofcoercion practiced now 
against the Czechs. 

They therefore joined the Czechs and took up 
arms for the defence of their liberties, for freedom 
of worship was with the nation closely interwoven 
with the cause of constitutional liberty. Gabriel 
Bethlen, who had become prince of Transylvania 
in 1613, stood at the head of the movement. On 
his first appearance on the scene of action, Bethlen 
is thus spoken of by a Frenchman in a report to 
his own government : '' Bethlen is a distinguished 
soldier who has taken part, in person, in forty-three 
engagements ; he is a man of wise judgment and 
great eloquence * "^ "^ in short, the great Henry 
IV. excepted, there is no king like him in the 
world." The high expectations entertained of his 
abilities were not disappointed. The whole Upper 
Country as far as Presburg passed into his hands dur- 
ing the first year of the rebellion, and in 1620 he ob- 
tained possession of the greatest part of the territory 
beyond the Danube. But while he was carrying on 
hostilities with such signal success, the Czechs were 
completely. routed by Tilly near Prague, and this 
defeat cost Bohemia her independence. Bethlen, 
being left without allies, hastened to make terms 
with the Viennese government, and the result was 
the Treaty of NIkolsburg, concluded in the begin- 
ning of 1622, based upon the peace of Vienna. 




HUNGARIAN PEASANTS. 



350 THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 

Bethlen, perceiving, with his wonted judgment, 
that the dissensions among the Protestants of Ger- 
many augured nothing favorable for the future, en- 
deavored to enter into amicable relations with the 
court of Vienna. He used every means to prevail 
upon it to abandon the persecution of the Protestants, 
and to unite with him in a common war against the 
Turks, in order to drive them from Hungary. But 
the court was not disposed to listen to his overtures, 
and seemed to consider it a matter of greater import- 
ance to accomplish the destruction of Protestantism 
than to free the country from the Turks. Bethlen, 
seeing that all attempts in this direction were 
doomed to failure, returned to the old policy of the 
Transylvania princeS. His political connections 
reached as far as France, England, and Sweden, and, 
upon the breaking oui of ihe Danish war (1625), he 
again began armed hostilities, which, however, al- 
though crowned with victory, gave way to a new 
treaty of peace, owing to the defeat of Bethlen's 
allies in Germany. When Gustavus Adolphus made 
his appearance in the West, achieving victories for 
Protestantism, the great Transylvanian prince was 
no more amongst the living ; he died in 1629. Beth- 
len was, no doubt, one of the most conspicuous 
figures in the history of Hungary. Through his ex- 
ertions little Transylvania moved, in politics, abreast 
of the most powerful European nations, and under 
him she became rich, powerful, and greatly advanced 
in culture, and a strong prop to the rest of the Hun- 
garian nation. His premature death deprived the 
country of the advantages which he certainly would 



THE AUSTRIAN RULE, 35 I 

have drawn from the triumphs of Gustavus Adol- 
phus. 

Toward the close of the Thirty Years* War, the 
prince of Transylvania, George Rakoczy I., took ad- 
vantage of the distressed position of Ferdinand III. 
of Hapsburg (who had succeeded his father, Ferdi- 
nand II., on his thrones in 1637) to strike a success- 
ful blow for the liberties of Hungary. The begin- 
ning of the reign of the successor of Ferdinand III., 
Leopold I. (1657-1705), witnessed the downfall of 
Transylvania's power. 

This event disturbed the balance of power be- 
tween the Turks and Germans, and alone was 
sufficient to bring about the great changes which 
soon took place in the affairs of Hungary. In order 
to account for the overthrow of the power of Tran- 
sylvania, it must be remembered that both the 
Turks and Germans had for a long time back looked 
askance at the strength and influence of this little 
principality. They were filled with apprehensions 
of having their Hungarian territories gradually ab- 
sorbed by Transylvania, and there was an agreement 
between these two powers, to the effect that she 
should not be allowed to add to her territory. It is 
impossible to suppose that the then ruler of Transyl- 
vania, George Rak6czy II., had no information of 
this secret treaty, but he apparently paid no heed to 
it, or entertained no fears as to its effects. He 
quietly continued to extend his power, and for that 
purpose entered into an alliance with the Swedish 
king for the partition of Poland. In vain did the 
Viennese court oppose this aggressive course, in vain 



35? THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

did the Turks command him to desist from it ; the 
Transylvanian prince crossed the Carpathians, with 
a gallant army, in 1657. The allied forces of Sweden 
and Transylvania were everywhere victorious, and 
the power of Transylvania stood higher than ever. 
It was at this conjuncture that Leopold L, who had 
succeeded Ferdinand III., inaugurated, at once, a 
warlike policy, parting with the peaceable traditions 
of his predecessors. Leopold divided the attention 
of Rakoczy's Swedish ally by setting on him his 
ancient enemies, the Danes, and sent his own armies 
into those Hungarian domains belonging to Rakoczy, 
which the Transylvanian princes had extorted from the 
Hapsburgs, in the treaties of Vienna and Nikolsburg, 
and on other similar occasions. Nor were the Turks 
behindhand in co-operating with the Hapsburgs. A 
Tartar army was sent into Poland against Rakoczy, 
and he himself was deposed from his princely office 
as a punishment for his disobedience. Rakoczy, 
thus left to fight his own battles, without an ally, 
and hemmed in by Turks, Germans, and Tartars, 
suffered defeat on every side, the flower of his army 
fell into the hands of the Tartars, and it was only 
by paying a large sum that he obtained peace from 
Poland. When he returned to Transylvania in 
August, 1657, with the wreck of his army, the prin- 
cipality was involved in utter financial and military 
ruin. 

The Turks, however, did not pause here ; they 
wished to get the whole of Transylvania into their 
possession. Twice the unhappy country was devas- 
tated by. Tartar hordes, and the inhabitants repeat- 



I 



. THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 353 

edly carried away into slavery by thousands ; a 
prince was given to her at the dictation of the 
Turks, and part of her territory actually passed 
under direct Turkish rule (1662). The hearts of the 
patriotic Hungarians bled at this cruel sight, and 
they appealed to and incessantly urged their king to 
interfere, and not to allow the principality to perish. 
Leopold I. turned a deaf ear to these appeals ; he 
was not inclined to venture on a war with Turkey, 
on behalf of Transylvania, and was, at best, careful 
to get his share of the common plunder. It was a 
gloomy outlook for the Hungarian nation ; the Turks, 
on the one hand, oppressing her with their formid- 
able forces, and their own king languidly looking on. 
The Turkish successes in Transylvania only served 
to whet the Moslem appetite for further conquests. 
In 1663 the Turks attacked Leopold without any 
warning, and obtained possession of the region of 
the Upper Danube, and of the lower valley of the 
Vag. This was a great blow to Hungary, for the 
conquered territory was thrust like a wedge into 
the semicircular national territory, dividing it 
again into two new parts. Although an imperial 
army was sent to meet the Turkish forces, no 
efforts were made to stay the continual advances 
of the latter as long as they were on Hungarian ter- 
ritory, but as soon as they neared the Austrian 
frontier they were opposed by the imperial forces. 
This imperial army achieved at St. Gotthard, near 
the Raab, a brilliant victory over the Turks. 
■ This victory gave fresh courage to the despondent 
Hungarians. They now hoped that the war would 



354 ^^-^ STORY OF HUNGARY. 

be successfully pushed forward, and would end only 
with the liberation of their country, and the less 
sanguine expected at least a peace which would re- 
store to the possession of the king of Hungary, 
Transylvania, and all the other territories obtained by 
the Turks since 1657. A sad disappointment, how- 
ever, fell upon the country. The peace concluded 
by the victorious government left in the possession 
of the Turks all the territory they had previously 
taken, thus virtually leaving the country in her former 
maimed condition. 

This disgraceful peace which had been concluded 
by the court of Vienna without consulting the Hun- 
garians, at last shook even the faith of those Cath- 
olic Hungarians who, until now, had been the un- 
conditional adherents of the Hapsburgs. They had, 
heretofore, acquiesced in the forlorn condition of 
their country, being persuaded that the Viennese 
government lacked the ability of rescuing her, but 
recent events showed them that it was lack of good 
will on the part of the government which was pre- 
cipitating the ruin of the country. It became the 
universal conviction that the Hapsburgs would glad- 
ly see the country in the hands of the foreign in- 
vader, in order to enable them, by reconquering her 
anew, to do away with the uncomfortable trammels 
of the national constitution. Leopold did not heed 
the general discontent ; he pursued the great aim he 
had proposed to himself, of uniting, after the illustri- 
ous example of Louis XIV., all the dependencies of 
his dynasty into one homogeneous empire. Things 
had come to such a pass in Hungary that the most in- 



THE A US TRIAN R ULE. 355 

veterate enemies of Turkey openly counselled amity 
with the Turks, declaring that they preferred paying 
a tribute to the latter rather than to see the country 
go to ruin by the Germanizing machinations of the 
Viennese court. 

The general discontent soon budded into a con- 
spiracy in which, this time, not only the Protestants, 
but chiefly the Catholic population took part, who 
were now quite as eager to rid themselves of the 
Germans. The heads of the conspiracy were all 
Catholics. Their leader was Wesselenyi, the palatine 
of the realm and the king's representative, and affili- 
ated with him in the leadership were the largest 
landlords in the country : Peter Zrinyi, Nadasdy, 
Francis Rakoczy, and Frangepan. Their aim was to 
rid the country of the Germans by the aid of the Turks, 
or, if possible, of the French. The conspiracy, how- 
ever, failed. Wesselenyi died, and the plot was be- 
trayed to the government before it had ripened into 
the intended rising. Leopold, without loss of time, 
swooped down upon the principal conspirators. 
Zrinyi, Nadasdy, and Frangepan were seized, and 
without being given the benefit of the laws of their 
country, were decapitated. Their immense estates 
were confiscated, and Rakoczy himself could only save 
his life and obtain mercy by paying a ruinous ransom 
(1671). The government, however, was not satisfied 
with the cruel punishment of the ringleaders alone ; 
it deemed this a propitious time for the introduction 
of various oppressive measures. Without convoking 
the Diet, a land and corn tax was imposed upon the 
country, excise duties were introduced, and a poll 



356 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

tax levied on every inhabitant, including the nobles. 
The land was swarming with a foreign soldiery 
brought there to restrain the rebellious Hungarians. 
The government added injury to insult ; not satis- 
fied with insulting the nation by entirely ignoring its 
constitution, and keeping down the national aspira- 
tions by quartering foreign garrisons in national 
territory, it raised illegal taxes wherewith to pay the 
armed oppressors. The government at Vienna threw 
off its mask at last ; the Hungarian constitution was 
abolished, and Hungary reduced to the condition of 
a province of Austria (1673). 

Whilst the government thus succeeded in subvert- 
ing the constitution of the country, it showed no less 
activity and success in the prosecution of its other 
aim, the Romanizing of the people. There was no 
law to protect those professing the new faith ; they 
could be oppressed with impunity ; their churches 
were taken away from them ; hundreds of their 
ministers and teachers were sentenced by the tribu- 
nal to slavery on the galleys, or were sent adrift by 
private persecutions. It was an open secret that the 
king himself was eager to exterminate the last 
heretic, and just as the oath of the king to protect 
the constitution had been forgotten, so were the 
various treaties of peace, guaranteeing the freedom 
of worship, doomed to oblivion, as soon as there was 
no Transylvanian prince to recall them to royal 
memory by force of arms. 

And yet it was Transylvania, in her weakened 
condition, that now came to the assistance of Hun- 
gary, which had become a prey to Austrian rapacity. 



THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 357 

Many of those who were compelled to fly from the 
persecutions of the sanguinary policy of the govern- 
ment sought and found a refuge in Transylvania, 
and they were continually urging Apaffy, the prince 
of Transylvania, and the Turks to intercede with 
arms in behalf of the Hungarian cause. The Vien- 
nese government assailed Stambul with letters re- 
questing the sultan not to allow Transylvania to be 
the place of refuge of certain ''thieves," but to no 
purpose. The Porte, indeed, so far from favorably 
receiving these epistles, secretly promised aid against 
the Austrians. A fresh insurrection broke out in 
1672. The refugees flocked into the Upper Country 
and inaugurated a warfare which, for cruelty and 
mercilessness, stands alone in the history of Hun- 
gary. The era of this contest, commencing in 
1672, and covering a period of nearly ten years, is 
called the Kiiriicz-Labanez era. This aimless and pur- 
posless struggle was kept up between the Kuruczes 
(insurgents) and Labanczes (Austrians), within the 
limits of the territory lying between Komarom and 
Transylvania, and there was no end of the horrors 
the contestants were guilty of in the course of 
their hostilities against each other. To cut tobacco 
on the enemy's bare back, or to cut strips from his 
quivering skin, to drive thorns or iron spikes under the 
finger-nails, to bury him in the ground up to his head 
and then fire at him, to skin him alive, to put a stake 
through him, — in a word, to perpetrate tortures at 
which humanity shudders, these were the every-day 
courtesies exchanged between the two belligerents. 
The combatants of that day respected neither God 



358 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

nor man ; they acknowleged only one guide for their 
actions : a bitter and undying hatred of all that 
called itself Labancz. They were the misguided crea- 
tures of a period during which the insane policy of 
the government had robbed the people both of their 
religion and their teachers. 

The ruling powers had thus conjured up days of 
terror, but were utterly inadequate to the task of 
terminating them. Indeed after several years of 
this schemeless struggle, the rebellion became at 
last organized and conscious of a fixed object. The 
rebels received aid from the French and from the 
Porte, and Transylvania, as a state, was ready to make 
common cause with her countrymen. Tokolyi, a 
magnate of the Upper Country, a youth only twenty- 
one years old, but of eminent abilities, placed him- 
self at the head of the rebels, and, now in 1678, began 
the war in good earnest. The rebels soon became 
masters of the Upper Country, and the government 
which had been unable to cope with the headless 
Kuruczes, proved quite helpless against the organized 
rebellion, led by an able chief. Austria was, besides, 
continually harassed by Louis XIV. in the west, 
and, to add to her difificulties, it was rumored that 
the Turks were preparing to invade Hungary with 
an immense army, which, uniting with the forces 
of Tokolyi, should drive the Austrians from the 
country. 

The government, thus driven to the wall, surren- 
dered. Negotiations soon began, the Diet was con- 
voked in 168 1, and constitutional government and 
freedom of worship were restored with a show of 



THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 359 

great alacrity. The concessions came too late. The 
rebels had no faith in the government after the cruel 
deceptions of which it had been guilty, and placed 
no trust in promises wrung from its necessitous con- 
dition. They refused to submit, and Tokolyi was 
proclaimed by the Porte king of Hungary. The 
threatened Turkish invasion became also in 1683 
a fact. At this moment Hungary seemed to be lost 
forever to the Hapsburgs ; the whole country sided 
with the Turks, the territory beyond the Danube 
also acknowledging the authority of Tokolyi. 

The destinies of Hungary, nay of all Eastern 
Europe, hung upon the fate of besieged Vienna. 
The siege of Vienna was raised through the victory 
of Sobieski the Polish king; and the rapidly succeed- 
ing victories of the Christian armies, already referred 
to in the preceding chapter, awakened the hopes of 
the Hungarian nation, and showed that, at last, the 
emperor-king concerned himself in the liberation 
from Turkish rule of Hungarian territory. The 
decisive victories of Prince Eugene of Savoy finally 
accomplished this, and the Turks henceforth gave up 
all hopes of reconquering Hungary. 

The liberation of the Hungarian soil, however im- 
portant in itself, proved no immediate panacea for the 
ills of which the country had to complain. Even while 
the struggle was going on, many things happened 
which pointed to troubles in the future. The Hunga- 
rian inhabitants along the course of the Danube were 
rudely interrogated by the soldiers of the imperial 
army of liberation as to what faith they professed, 
and if they were found to adhere to the new tenets 



360 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

they were mercilessly set adrift. In the Upper 
Country a certain Caraffa, the military command- 
ant of that district, committed acts of the most cruel 
atrocity. This bloody monster pretended to have 
discovered a conspiracy, and obtained from the gov- 
ernment, which was disposed to suspect the loyalty 
of the Hungarians, full powers to deal with it and 
to put it down. Caraffa made a terrible use of his 
commission. He made wholesale arrests of the sus- 
pected and loyal alike, threw into prison men of high 
standing against whom he had a personal grudge, 
and rich people whose property he coveted, and ex- 
torted from them by dreadful tortures the confession 
of crimes they had never committed. These unfor- 
tunates were then executed upon the strength of 
their confessions. This bloody trihmal of Eperjes, of 
ill-fame, which inspired horror all over the land, con- 
tinued its malevolent functions until the first months 
of 1687, when it was abolished, through the interces- 
sion of the Diet which had just been convoked. This 
Diet, however, was in most of its work not at all anx- 
ious to hamper the government. On the contrary, it 
displayed a pliability which made it forget the true 
interests of the country. Thus it substituted for 
the ancient right of the nation to elect their kings, 
the hereditary right of succession in the male branch 
of the Hapsburg dynasty, and it was this Diet that 
relinquished the time-honored right of the people, 
guaranteed by the Golden Bull, to resist with arms 
any illegal acts of the king, without incurring the 
penalty of treason for so doing. There were some 
maHcious critics who pretended that this unpatri- 



THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 3^1 

Otic legislation was due to the pressure of imperial 
guns pointed at the place in which the Diet met. 
At all events the servile spirit exhibited by the 
Diet gave color to the apprehensions of those 
Hungarians who were of one mind with Tokolyi, 
that Hungary must be irretrievably ruined if she 
passed under the authority of the Austrians. 

As the Turkish wars were drawing to an end, more 
melancholy portents began to darken the horizon. 
Hungary was re-organized by the government at 
Vienna without the Hungarians being consulted. 
Transylvania remained a separate '' grand duchy," 
and the district beyond the Drave was formed into 
a separate province, and all this was done from the 
fear lest united Hungary might become too strong 
to suit Austria's schemes. A large portion of the 
recovered territory was distributed amongst German 
landowners, the southern portion of the Alfold was 
colonized by Servians, and in other parts of the 
land, especially in the cities, the settlement of Ger- 
man-speaking people was encouraged, for the pur- 
pose of tempering the hot blood of the rebellious 
Hungarians. The fortified castles scattered through- 
out the whole country, the property of private own- 
ers, were blown up by the hundred, without the 
consent of their proprietors, lest in case of a fresh 
rising these strongholds should be used as centres of 
a factious spirit. 

The Protestants were not allowed to settle in the 
re-conquered districts. In other places the freedom 
of their worship was interfered with, the churches 
were taken from them, their ministers driven away, 



362 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

and if any one, appealing to his constitutional rights, 
had the courage to resist these illegalities, he was 
thrown into prison. In a word, regular dragonnades, 
as they flourished in France under Louis XIV., now 
became the order of the day. 

The government imposed upon the people such 
oppressive and burdensome taxes that it almost 
seemed as if it dreaded the prosperity of the coun- 
try. If the people complained of the heavy burdens, 
they were instigated against the nobles, whose ex- 
emption from taxation was pointed out as the only 
cause of the heavy burdens. The country was again 
flooded by a foreign soldiery, whose chief business 
consisted in robbing and plundering, the common 
soldiers oppressing the common people, and the 
officers the nobility. The honor and the property 
of the people were at the mercy of these brutal 
troops, and those who complained of such outrages 
found themselves always in the wrong. This forlorn 
condition is reflected in many of the plaintive popu- 
lar songs of that period, but there was no means of 
remedying these evils crying throughout the land, 
for no Diet had been convoked since 1687. The aim 
of the Viennese government became daily more 
evident, to put the Austrian rule in the place of the 
Turkish, and to ignore altogether the Hungarian 
national aspirations. The nation herself seemed to 
the government too much enfeebled and trodden 
down to give any ground for apprehending any re- 
sistance in defence of her rights, but to make assur- 
ance doubly sure every effort was made to crush the 
national spirit. 



THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 363 

Yet the nation could not brook oppression, she 
could not be kept quiet, deprived of constitutional 
government, and as soon as she had found again a 
leader in Francis Rakoczy II., she rose in arms. 
The new leader was the bearer of a great name. His 
ancestors had been princes of Transylvania. • He 
himself was the grandson of that George Rakoczy 
II., who in 1657 invaded Poland, and subsequently 
lost his life fighting against the Turks in defence of 
his country and his throne. His father Francis had 
taken part in the Wesselenyi conspiracy, and es- 
caped the scaffold only at the cost of an immense 
ransom. His maternal grandfather, Peter Zrinyi, 
met with his death on the scaffold, and his only 
great-uncle perished in prison in spite of his inno- 
cence. His stepfather, Tokolyi, together with his 
own mother, Ilona Zrinyi, ate the bitter bread of 
exile in Turkey. He and his sister were, in their 
early youth, torn from their parents, and their edu- 
cation entrusted to Germans. In Vienna he was 
subjected to many humiliations, and as he grew up 
he left that city and retired to one of his estates, in- 
tending to pass his life peacefully near his wife. 
He was averse to action, and the bloody shades of 
his family seemed vainly to beckon to him, who 
alone bore yet the famous name and was the master 
of immense possessions, to follow in their footsteps. 

But all this was changed as soon as he came to 
Hungary. He could not bear to witness the wrongs 
perpetrated about him, and he could not move a 
step without becoming aware that the nation ex- 
pected from him, the descendant of a Hne of heroes, 



364 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

their salvation. Meanwhile the Spanish war of suc- 
cession had broken out in 1701, and very soon all 
Europe was involved in it. This appeared to Ra- 
k6czy to be a propitious time for the reconquering 
of the liberties of the people, and, aided by the 
Fren*ch king, he hoisted in 1703 the flag of the rebel- 
lion, bearing the inscription " pro patria et libertate," 
for the fatherland and liberty. 

The sages at Vienna would not at first credit the 
news of the rising of the people ; they had long ago 
made up their minds that such an event was impos- 
sible. But when the movement spread like wild- 
fire throughout the Upper Country, Transylvania, and 
ultimately all Hungary, and the great majority of 
the nation unsheathed the sword, they became 
frightened, and resorted to — negotiations and fresh 
promises. The rebels were inclined to cease hos- 
tilities provided their liberties were secured. But 
mere words did not satisfy them now, having been 
taught by sad experience the futility of royal words, 
oaths, and solemn treaties of peace, and they there- 
fore endeavored to obtain more substantial guar- 
anties from the government. They exacted the in- 
dependence of Transylvania, under a Hungarian 
prince and the guaranty of the European powers. 
To these propositions the government neither would 
nor could accede, while the rebels insisted upon their 
first proposals, declaring that it was impossible for 
them to have any faith in Austrian or — as it was 
popularly termed — in German promises. This uni- 
versal sentiment of distrust, pervading the nation, is 
admirably reflected in a popular song, to which that 




PEASANT GIRL FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF BUDA-PESTH. 



366 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

period gave birth, and of which we subjoin a transla- 
tion : 

" Magyar, trust not the Germans, 

No matter how or what they protest ; 

Naught is the parchment they give thee, 

'Though it be as large as thy round cloak, 

And though they set a seal on it 

As big as the brim of the moon, 

Spite of all, it lacks all virtus (trustworthiness). 

Confound them, yestis Christus ! " 

These overtures failed to lead to peace, and the 
struggle continued throughout the land, giving up 
to ruin what had been left intact by the Turkish 
slavery of a century and a half and the sixteen 
years' war of liberation. The government was un- 
able either to quell or to crush the rebellion, stand- 
ing in need of all its strength for the struggle in the 
west. At this conjuncture Leopold I. descended 
into his grave in 1705, and his well-intentioned son, 
Joseph I., succeeded to the throne (1705-1711). 

Joseph sincerely wished for peace, and, convinced 
of the mistakes of the policy of his father, he did all 
in his power to allay the apprehensions of the rebels, 
but his constitutional sentiment failed to efface the 
baneful effects of his predecessor's misgovernment 
and duplicity. Nor was it possible for him, either, 
to accept the terms of the rebels, and thus it came 
to pass that the dynasty of Hapsburg was dethroned 
in Hungary, during the reign of this upright mon- 
arch, in 1707. This was a great mistake on the part 
of the rebels, but Joseph had now the advantage of 
being able to show his respect for the liberties of the 
nation, under the most adverse circumstances, and 



THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 367 

he thus,' by slow degrees, won the confidence of 
the people. The French had, meanwhile, been 
thoroughly defeated, and Joseph was thus enabled 
to oppose larger forces to the rebels, while the latter 
could not secure aid from any quarter. The rebels, 
exhausted with the protracted struggle, met with 
repeated defeats, and, to add to their distress, the 
black plague made its appearance and fearfully 
thinned the ranks of their troops. The king, how- 
ever, did not abuse his increasing power. He granted 
an amnesty to all, without exception, who were wil- 
ling to return to their allegiance ; he governed con- 
stitutionally, remedied the ills inflicted upon the 
country by his predecessors, and finally placed a 
Hungarian commander-in-chief at the head of the 
army. His earnest and sincere endeavors were at 
last rewarded by peace. The issue of the various 
negotiations was the compact of Szatmar, concluded 
in 171 1, by the terms of which a general amnesty 
was granted, and constitutional and religious liberty 
secured. 

This peace was a grateful conclusion to the sad 
days which had been weighing down Hungary for 
two hundred years, a period during which both 
Turks and Austrians were compassing the ruin of 
the country. The former were perpetually threaten- 
ing her territorial integrity ; the latter, her political 
liberties, and the nationality to which those liberties 
were closely wedded. By dint of rare courage, an 
undying love of liberty, and acute statesmanship, 
they succeeded in preserving both their territory and 
their liberties. The sad events of those two centu- 



368. THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

ries had put the endurance and energies of the nation 

to the severest test, but, in the end, she triumphantly 
passed through the cruel ordeal. 

A new era now dawned in the history of Hungary. 
Wars no more threatened the territory of the coun- 
try, and her liberties and nationality were no longer 
exposed to stubborn violence. Yet the dangers to 
her national life were not yet quite removed, for 
what the sword and brute force had been unable to 
accomplish during the preceding centuries, the 
eighteenth century attempted to achieve peaceably 
by means of the Western civilization. 

Charles III. (Charles VI. as Emperor of Ger- 
many), the brother and successor of Joseph, inaug- 
urated this new policy, and his daughter, Maria 
Theresa (i 740-1 780), continued to pursue, during 
her long reign, with great success, the course 
traced by her royal father. The protracted wars, 
whilst laying waste the country and reducing her 
population, had also retarded her culture, and it 
became now necessary to find means to remedy both 
evils. Attempts were made to supply the lack of 
population by colonizing. The Alfold, the special 
home of the Hungarian race, was particularly de- 
populated, and there we see the work of establishing 
new settlements most zealously carried on during the 
whole century. The Slavs from the Upper Country, 
the Servians from the South, and multitudes of Ger- 
man-speaking peoples from the West, soon spread 
over the great plain, and the numerous villages of 
the last could be met with at every step. The 
government was especially solicitous in promoting 



THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 369 

German colonization, partly because these settlers 
were industrious, and partly because this course 
favored the Germanization of the country. But 
soon the Hungarians, who had been crowded back 
into the hilly regions of the country, returned to 
their beloved Alfold, and for a while a regular hand- 
to-hand fight ensued between them and the stran- 
gers for the possession of the broad acres of the 
fertile plain. Hardly one generation passed and all 
those motley populations became Magyarized, and 
proudly proclaimed themselves to be members of 
the Hungarian community. Only there where the 
foreign element had settled in compact masses, they 
remained strangers still, but the national encroach- 
ment on their borders went constantly on. In con- 
nection with the colonization was also carried on 
the work of draining the swamps and improving the 
soil, and we see the population day by day increas- 
ing in numbers and wealth. 

Great changes, too, were effected in the country 
by means of legislation. Successive Diets endeav- 
ored to remedy the many palpable defects, and it 
may be said that the tribunals existing up to 1848 
originated in the time of Charles HI. At this 
period, also, was introduced the system of a standing 
army, and with it that of permanent taxation. Both 
soldiers and taxes are still granted by the Diet, yet, 
not for special emergencies only, as they arise, but 
until the next Diet is convoked. About this time 
the relations between Hungary and the Austrian 
provinces were more clearly defined by the Pragmatic 
Sanction of 1723. By it Hungary and the Austrian 



370 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

provinces were declared inseparable, and the ruler of 
both was always to be one and the same person from 
the Hapsburg dynasty, in the regular order of suc- 
cession in the male and female lines ; but, otherwise, 
Hungary was to remain perfectly independent, and 
was to be governed by her own laws. 

The nation was offered an opportunity to prove 
by her alacrity in complying with the wishes of 
Charles in regard to a change in the order of the 
dynastic succession, that his kind feelings towards 
the country were fully reciprocated by the trustful- 
ness of the people. The right of succession was thus 
extended to the female line too of those very Haps- 
burgs, whose dynasty the nation, not many years 
before, had declared to have altogether forfeited their 
right to the throne. The country was soon called 
upon at Maria Theresa's accession to the throne to 
prove by deeds its attachment and gratitude. The 
young queen was attacked by all Europe, the enemy 
being eager to rob her of the fairest portions of her 
Austrian possessions. In this extreme danger she 
appealed to chivalrous Hungary for protection, and 
the nation, forgetting the old quarrels, exclaimed 
with one voice: " Vitani ct sangtiinein ! moriaimir 
pro rege nost7'o Maria Theresia ! " Eighty thousand 
soldiers went into the war to meet the queen's ene- 
mies, who were anxious to divide the spoils of the 
empire, and during a combat of eight years the 
Hungarians, whilst defending their Pragmatic Sanc- 
tion, upheld, at the same time, the integrity of the 
Austrian possessions. The dynasty had thus won 
in Hungary, by a spirit of conciliation, a country 



THE AUSTRIAN RULE. 



371 



Upon which it could count as a trusty support in 
case of danger from without. 

Maria Theresa showed herself grateful for the 
sacrifices and devotion of the nation. The district 
of Temes, which had been retaken from the Turks 
by her father, was re-annexed to the kingdom of 




HUNGARIAN PEASANT. 



Hungary, and it was Maria Theresa who gave Hun- 
gary the city of Fiume, in order that the country 
might have a seaport town to promote her com- 
merce and industry. A great deal, too, was done 
by her, in many ways, to improve the material con- 
dition of the country, and still more for the advance- 
ment of higher culture through the erection of 



3/2 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

churches and the foundation and organization of 
schools. In a word, she always remained, to her 
end, the ''gracious queen" of the nation. 

A great social revolution had also taken place dur- 
ing the reigns of Charles and Maria Theresa. The 
magnates of the country deserted in the piping times 
of peace their eagle's nests on the rocky crests of the 
hills and descended into the smiling valleys below, 
building there palaces for themselves after foreign 
patterns. Life in those rural abodes, owing to the lack 
of pastimes and refinement, soon became dull to the 
great lords, and, as there was no national capital to 
offer distraction, they went abroad, and soon came 
to like the foreign mode of life better than the law- 
lessness of their country homes. The Viennese court 
bade them welcome, overwhelmed them with distinc- 
tions, and Maria Theresa, especially, understood the 
art of fascinating them. Gradually they became for- 
eigners in their dress and manners, and all the Hun- 
garian that was still preserved by these absentees 
was their names and the estates they possessed in 
Hungary, the revenues of which they spent abroad. 
The atmosphere and the graces of court life suc- 
ceeded in doing what the sword and violence had 
failed to accomplish. The great lords became es- 
tranged from their country and thoroughly German- 
ized. 

If the great noblemen alone had still the exclusive 
charge of defending the independence and nationality 
of Hungary as they had done in days of old, then 
indeed these blessed days of peace would have 
brought ruin on both. It was fortunate, however, 



THE AUSTRIAN RULE, 373 

for the country that there was still left the gentry, 
numbering hundreds of thousands, who, after the 
peace of 171 1, went on in their lives as before, and 
concerned themselves, in their old way, with the na- 
tional affairs ; the counties, where self-government 
reigned supreme, being the scene of their action 
This class of nobles did not go abroad, nor was it 
possible to subject any large numbers of them to the 
fascinations of Viennese court life. They remained 
at home, retained their Hungarian customs and 
manners, their national language and dress, and 
with these it was impossible to make them part. 
Their counties were so many bulwarks of their na- 
tionality and the independence of Hungary, and 
these numerous seats of self-government furnished 
the counterpoise to the Germanizing influences of 
the court, which were thus destined, as far as the 
nation as a whole w^as concerned, to come to naught 
in times of peace, as they had failed before when 
coercion was employed. 




CHAPTER XIV. 

THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. THE NATIONAL REACTION 
AND THE NAPOLEONIC WARS. 

The royal crown of Hungary has ever been, from 
the time it encircled the brow of St. Stephen, an 
object of jealous solicitude and almost superstitious 
veneration with the nation. It continued to loom 
up as a luminous and rallying point in the midst of 
the vicissitudes and stirring events of the history of 
the country, during all the centuries that followed 
the coronation of the first king. The people looked 
upon it as a hallowed relic, the glorious bequest of a 
long line of generations past and gone, and as the 
symbol and embodiment of the unity of the state. 
The different countries composing Hungary were 
known under the collective name of the Lands of the 
Sacred Crown, and, at the period when the privileged 
nobility was still enjoying exceptional immunities, 
each noble styled himself meinbrunt sacrcE coroncB, a 
member of the sacred crown. In the estimation of 
the people it had ceased to be a religious symbol, 
and had become a cherished national and political 
memorial, to which the followers of every creed and 
all the classes without distinction might equally do 
homage. Nor was the crown an every-day orna- 

374 



THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. 375 

ment to be displayed by royalty on solemn occasions 
of pageant. The king wore it only once in his life, 
on the day of his coronation, when he was bound 
solemnly to swear fidelity to the constitution, before 
the high dignitaries of the state, first in church, and 
to repeat afterwards in the open air his vow to gov- 
ern the country within the limits of the law. Thus 
in Hungary it has ever been the ancient custom, pre- 
vailing to this day, that, on the king's accession to 
the throne, it is he who, on his coronation, takes 
the oath of fidelity to his people, instead of the latter 
swearing fealty to the king. The right of succession 
to the throne is hereditary, but the lawful rule of the 
king begins with the ceremony of coronation only. 
It requires this ceremonial, which to this day is char- 
acterized by the attributes of mediaeval pomp and 
splendor, to render the acts of the ruler valid and 
binding upon the people ; without it every public 
act of such ruler is a usurpation. 

During eight centuries all the kings and queens, 
without exception, had been eager to place the crown 
on their heads, in order to come into the full possession 
of their regal privileges. Joseph 11. , Maria Theresa's 
son, who succeeded his mother in 1780, was the first 
king who refused to be crowned. He felt a reluc- 
tance to swear fidelity to the constitution, and to 
promise, by a solemn oath, to govern the country in 
accordance with its ancient usages and laws. The 
people, therefore, never called him their crowned 
king ; he was either styled emperor by them, or 
nicknamed the ^^ kalapos'' (hatted) king. His reign 
was but a series of illegal and unconstitutional 



37^ THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

acts, and a succession of bitter and envenomed 
struggles between the nation and her ruler. The 
contest finally ended with Joseph's defeat. He re- 
tracted on his death-bed all his arbitrary measures, 
and conceded to the people the tardy restoration of 
their ancient constitution. The conflict, however, 
had left deep traces in the minds of his Hungarian 
subjects. It roused them from the dormant state 
into which they had been lulled by the gentle and 
maternal absolutism of Maria Theresa. Thus Jo- 
seph's schemes not only failed, but, in their effects, 
they were destined to bring about the triumph of 
ideas, fraught with important consequences, such as 
he had hardly anticipated. The nation, waking from 
her lethargy, gave more prominence than ever to the 
idea of nationality, an idea which, as time advanced, 
increased in potency and intensity. 

Yet this ruler, who on ascending the throne disre- 
garded all constitutional obligations and waged a re- 
lentless war against the Hungarian nationality, must 
be, nevertheless, ranked amongst the noblest charac- 
ters of his century. Thoroughly imbued with the 
enlightened views of the eighteenth century, and 
those new ideas which had triumphed in the war of 
independence across the ocean, he was ever in pur- 
suit of generous and exalted aims. He sincerely 
desired the welfare of the people, and in engaging 
in this fruitless conflict he was by no means actuated 
by sinister intentions or by a despotic disposition. 
To introduce reforms, called for by the spirit of the 
age, into the Church, the schools, and every depart- 
ment of his government, was the lofty task he had 




M&m^S^m^MM&mmS^^^m^^'- 



* It'':""? 



HUNGARIAN PORTER. 



37S THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

imposed upon himself. A champion of the op- 
pressed, he freed the human conscience from its 
mediaeval fetters, granted equal rights to the per- 
secuted creeds, protected the enslaved peasantry 
against their arbitrary masters, and enlarged the 
liberty of the press. He endeavored to establish 
order and honesty in every branch of the public 
service, being mindful, at the same time, of all the 
agencies affecting the prosperity of the people. In 
a word, his remarkable genius embraced every prov- 
ince of human action where progress, reforms, and 
ameliorations were desirable. 

Unhappily for his own peace of mind and for the 
destinies of the nation he was called upon to rule, 
he committed a fatal error in the selection of the 
methods for accomplishing his humane and philan- 
thropic objects. He desired to render Hungary 
happy, yet he excluded the nation from the direction 
of her own affairs. He wished to enact salutarj^ laws, 
yet he reigned as an absolute monarch, unwilling to 
call the Diet to his aid in the great work of reforma- 
tion, ignoring and disdaining the constitution and laws 
of the country. He was impolitic enough to attack a 
constitution which, thanks to the devotion of the 
people, had withstood the shock of seven centuries. 
He was unwise enough to suppose that the people, 
in whose hearts the love of their ancient constitution 
had taken deep root, for the defence of which rivers of 
blood had been shed, could be prevailed upon to relin- 
quish it to satisfy a theorj' of royalty. The old polit- 
ical organization was eminently an outgrowth of the 
Hungarian nationality, and all classes of the people, 



THE EMPEROR JOSEPH IE 3/9 

including the very peasantry to whom the ancient 
constitution meant only oppression, clung to it with 
devoted fervor. The people were as anxious for 
reforms as Joseph himself, but they wanted them 
by lawful methods, and with the co-operation of the 
nation and their Diet. Joseph might have become 
the regenerator and benefactor of Hungary if he had 
availed himself, for the realization of his grand ob- 
jects, of the national and lawful channels which lay 
ready to his hand. But he, unfortunately, preferred 
attempting to achieve his purpose out of the pleni- 
tude of his own power, by imperial edicts and arbi- 
trary measures, thus conjuring up a storm against 
himself which well-nigh shook his throne, and plung- 
ing the nation into a wild ferment of passion border- 
ing on revolution. 

The people presented a solid phalanx against Jo- 
seph's attacks upon their nationality and language, 
which to them were objects dearer than every thing 
else. They little cared for the emperor's well-inten- 
tioned endeavors to make them prosperous and hap- 
py as long as he asked, in exchange, for the relin- 
quishment of their nationality. And this, above all, 
was his most ardent wish. He wanted Hungary to 
be Hungarian no more, and wished its people to cast 
off the distinctive marks of their individuality, and to 
adopt the German language, instead of their own, in 
the schools, the public administration, and in judicial 
proceedings. In a word, he made German the offi- 
cial language of the country, and was bent on forcing 
it upon the people. 

Henceforth every reform coming from Joseph be- 



38o THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

came hateful to the people. The oppressed classes 
themselves spurned relief which involved the sacrifice 
of their sweet mother-tongue. By proclaiming equal 
rights and equal subjection to the burdens of the 
state, he arrayed the privileged classes against his 
person. The Protestants and the peasantry, who had 
hailed him in the beginning as their new Messiah, 
and fondly saw in his innovations the dawn of 
brighter days, also turned from him as soon as he 
attacked them in what they prized even more than 
liberty and justice. It was not long before the 
whole country, without distinction of class, social 
standing, or creed, combined to set at naught the 
Germanizing efforts of Joseph. The hard-fought 
struggle roused the people, hitherto divided by an- 
tagonisms of class and creed, to a sense of national 
solidarity. It was during the critical days of these 
constitutional conflicts that the foundations of the 
modern homogeneousness of the Hungarian nation 
and society were laid down. 

The privileged classes looked upon Joseph, on his 
advent to the throne, with distrust. They foresaw 
that he would not allow himself to be crowned, in 
order to avoid taking the oath of fidelity to the con- 
stitution of Hungary. The first measures of his 
reign concerned the organization of the various 
churches of the country. He extended the religious 
freedom of the Protestant Church. By virtue of the 
apostolic rights of the Hungarian kings, he intro- 
duced signal reforms into the Catholic Church, espe- 
cially regarding the education of the clergy, which 
proved, in part, exceedingly salutary. He abolished 



THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. 38 1 

numerous religious orders, especially those which 
were not engaged either in teaching or nursing the 
sick. One hundred and forty monasteries and nun- 
neries were closed by him in Hungary. The ample 
property of these convents he employed for ecclesi- 
astical and public purposes and for the advancement 
of instruction. He exerted himself strenuously and 
successfully in the establishment of public schools 
and in the interest of popular education. He re- 
moved the only university of which the country 
could then boast from Buda to Pesth, a city which 
was rapidly increasing, and added a theological de- 
partment to that seat of learning. All these inno- 
vations met with the approval of the enlightened 
elements of the nation, whilst the privileged classes 
and the clergy opposed them with sullen discontent. 
The opposition was all the more successful, as the 
emperor had contrived to insult the moral suscepti- 
bilities of the common people by some of his meas- 
ures. Thus, with a view to economizing the boards 
required for coffins, he ordered the dead to be sewed 
up in sacks, and to be buried in this apparel. This 
uncalled-for meddling with the prejudices of the 
lower classes had the effect of creating a great indig- 
nation among them, and of driving them into the 
camp of the opposition. Trifling and thoughtless 
measures of a similar nature impaired the credit of 
the most salutary innovations. The people looked 
with suspicion at every change, and, heedless of the 
lofty endeavors of the emperor, everybody, includ- 
ing the officials themselves, rejected the entire gov- 
ernmental system of Joseph. 



382 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

The emperor also wounded the national feeling of 
piety by his action concerning the crown he had 
spurned. According to ancient custom and law the 
sacred crown was kept in safety in Presburg, in a 
building provided for that purpose. In 1784 the 
emperor ordered the crown to be removed to Vi- 
enna, in order to be placed there in the royal treas- 
ury side by side with the crowns of his other lands. 
The nation revolted at this profanation of their hal- 
lowed relic, and the highest official authorities, 
throughout the land, protested against a measure 
which, while it created such wide-spread ill feeling, 
was not justified by any necessity. A dreadful storm, 
accompanied by thunder and lightning, was raging 
when the crown was removed to Vienna, and the 
people saw in this a sign that nature herself rebelled 
against the sacrilege committed by the emperor. 
The counties continued to urge the return of the 
crown in addresses which were sometimes humbly 
suppliant in their tone and sometimes threatening, 
but Joseph did not yield either to supplications or 
menaces. 

When the edict, which made German the official 
language of the country, was published, the minds of 
men all over the country were already greatly dis- 
turbed. It is true, that hitherto the Latin and not 
the Hungarian language had been the medium of 
communication employed by the state. But the na- 
tional spirit and the native tongue, which during the 
first seventy years of the eighteenth century had 
sadly degenerated, were awakening to new life dur- 
ing Joseph's reign. The literature of the country 




SLOVAK WOMAN AND CHILDREN. 



384 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

began to be assiduously cultivated in different spheres. 
Royal body-guards belonging to distinguished fami- 
lies, gentlemen of refinement, clergymen of modest 
position, and other sons of the native soil labored with 
equal zeal and enthusiasm to foster their cherished 
mother-tongue. It would, therefore, have been an 
easy matter for Joseph to replace the Latin language, 
which had become an anachronism, by the Hunga- 
rian, and thus to restore the latter to its natural and 
legal position in the state. He was perfectly right in 
ridding the country of the mastery of a dead tongue, 
but he committed a most fatal error in trying to sub- 
stitute for it the German, an error which avenged 
itself most bitterly. Joseph entertained a special 
antipathy to the Hungarian tongue, a dislike which 
betrayed him Into omitting the teaching of the native 
language from the course of public instruction, and 
refusing to allow an academy of sciences to be estab- 
lished which had its cultivation for Its object. 

The emperor's attack upon the language of the 
nation irremediably broke the last tie between him 
and the country, and, henceforth, the relations be- 
tween them could be only hostile. The counties as- 
sumed a threatening attitude, some of them refusing 
obedience altogether. Thus most of them declined 
to give their ofificial co-operation to the army ofificers 
who had been delegated by the emperor to take the 
census. The count, nevertheless, proceeded, but in 
many places the inhabitants escaped to the woods, 
and in some there were serious riots in consequence 
of the opposition to the commissioners of the census. 
A rising of a different character took place amongst 



THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. 385 

the Wallachs. The Wallachs, smarting under abuses 
of long standing, buoyed up by exaggerated expec- 
tations consequent upon the emperor's innova- 
tions, and stirred up by evil-minded agitators, took 
to arms and perpetrated the most outrageous atroci- 
ties against their Hungarian landlords. The ignorant 
common people were assured by their leaders, Hora 
and Kloska, that the emperor himself sided with 
them. The Wallach insurgents assassinated the 
government's commissioners sent to them, destroyed 
60 villages and 182 gentlemen's mansions, and killed 
4,000 Hungarians, before they could be checked in 
their bloody work. Although they were finally 
crushed and punished, a strong belief prevailed 
in the country that the court of Vienna had been 
privy to the Wallach rising. 

Joseph subsequently laid down most humane rules 
regulating the relations between the bondmen and 
their landlords. But the country could not be ap- 
peased by any boon, especially as the high protective 
tariff, just then established for the benefit of the Aus- 
trian provinces, was seriously damaging the prosper- 
ity of the people. Joseph's foreign policy tended to 
increase the domestic disaffection. In 1788 he de- 
clared war against Turkey, but the campaign turned 
out unsuccessful, and nearly terminated with the em- 
peror's capture. The nation, emboldened by his de- 
feat, urged now more emphatically her demands, and 
requested the emperor to annul his illegal edicts, to 
submit to be crowned, and to restore the ancient 
constitution. Joseph continuing to resist her de- 
mands, most of the counties refused to contribute 



386 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

in aid of the war either money or produce. In addi- 
tion to their recalcitrant attitude, they most energet- 
ically pressed the emperor to convoke the Diet at 
Buda, a few counties going even so far as to insist 
upon the Chief Justice's convoking it, if the emperor 
failed to do so before May, 1790. 

The courage of the nation rose still higher when 
the news of the revolution in France and the revolt 
in Belgium reached the country. The people refused 
to furnish recruits and military aid, and the emperor 
was compelled to use violence in order to obtain either. 
The counties remained firm and continued to remon- 
strate in addresses characterized by sharp and energetic 
language. Joseph yielded at last. He was prostrated 
by a grave illness, and feeling his end approaching 
he wished to die in peace with the exasperated na- 
tion he had so deeply wou4ided. On the 28th of 
January, 1790, he retracted all his illegal edicts, ex- 
cepting those that had reference to religious toleration, 
the peasantry, and the clergy, and re-established the 
ancient constitution of the country. Soon after he 
sent back the crown to Buda, where its return was 
celebrated with great pomp, amidst the enthusiastic 
shouts of the people. Before he could yet convoke 
the Diet death terminated the emperor's career on 
the 20th of February. The world lost in him a great 
and noble-minded man and a friend to humanity, 
who, however, had been unable to realize all his 
lofty intentions. The effect of his reign was to 
rouse Hungary from the apathy into which it had 
sunk, and at the time of Joseph's death, the minds of 
the people were a prey to an excitement no less 



THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. 387 

feverish than that which had seized revolutionary- 
France at the same period. 

But while in Paris democracy was victorious over 
royalty, the latter had to yield in Hungary to the 
privileged nobility. The restored constitution was 
a charter of political privileges for the nobles only, 
and as such was most jealously guarded by them. 
This class kept a strict watch over the liberal tenden- 
cies of the age, preventing the importation of demo- 
cratic ideas from France from fear of harm to their 
exclusive immunities. 

Joseph was succeeded by his brother, Leopold 
II., who until now had been Grand Duke of 
Tuscany. The new ruler was as enlightened as 
his predecessor, and had as much the welfare 
of the people at heart ; but he respected, at the 
same time, the laws and the constitution. He im- 
mediately convoked the Diet in order to be crowned, 
and by this act he solemnly sealed the peace with 
the nation. The people hailed with joy this first 
step of their new king, and there was nothing in the 
way of their now obtaining lawfully from the good- 
will of the king the salutary legislation which Joseph 
had attempted to force arbitrarily upon them. But 
the fond hopes in this direction were doomed to 
disappointment. The national movement had not 
helped to power those who were in favor of progress, 
equality of rights, and democracy. No doubt there 
were people in the country who differed from the 
men in authority, who were sincerely attached to 
the doctrines of the French Revolution and eager to 
supplant the privileges of the nobles by the broader 



388 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

rights belonging to all humanity. The national liter- 
ature was in the hands of men of this class. They 
combated the reactionary spirit of the nobility, and 
contended for the recognition of the civil and politi- 
cal rights of by far the largest portion of the people, 
the non-nobles. They boldly and with generous en- 
thusiasm wielded the pen in defence of those noble 
ideas, and indoctrinated the people with them as 
much as the restraints placed upon the press allowed 
it at that period. They succeeded in obtaining re- 
cruits for their ideas from the very ranks of the 
privileged classes, and many an enlightened magnate 
admitted that the time had arrived for modernizing 
the constitution of Hungary by an extension of 
political rights. Their number was swelled also by 
the more intelligent portion of the inhabitants of the 
cities, and those educated patriotic people who, 
although no gentle blood flowed in their veins, had 
either obtained office under Joseph's reign or had 
imbibed the political views of that monarch. But 
all of these men combined formed but an insignifi- 
cant fraction of the people compared to the numer- 
ous nobility, who, after their enforced submission 
during ten years, were eager to turn to the advantage 
of their own class the victory they had achieved over 
Joseph. During the initial preparations for the 
elections to the Diet, and in the course of the elec- 
tions, sentiments were publicly uttered and obtained 
a majority in the county assemblies, which caused a 
feverish commotion amongst the common people 
and the peasantry. The latter especially now eagerly 
clung to innovations introduced by the Emperor 



REACTION- AND NAPOLEONIC WARS. 389 

Joseph, so beneficial as regarded their own class, and 
were reluctant to submit to the restoration of the 
former arbitrary landlord system. Their remon- 
strances were answered by the counties to the effect 
that Providence had willed it so that some men 
should be kings, others nobles, and others again 
bondmen. Such cruel reasoning failed* to satisfy 
the aggrieved peasantry. Symptoms of a dangerous 
revolutionary spirit showed themselves throughout 
a large portion of the country, and an outbreak 
could be prevented only by the timely assurance, on 
the part of the counties, that the matter would be 
submitted to the Diet about to assemble. 

The Diet, which had not been convened for twenty- 
five years, opened in Buda in the beginning of June, 
1790. The coronation soon took place. Fifty years 
had elapsed since the last similar pageant had been 
enacted in Hungary. After a lengthy and vehement 
contest extending over ten months, in the course of 
which the Diet was removed from Buda to Presburg, 
the laws of 1790-179 1, which form part of the 
fundamental articles of the Hungarian constitution, 
were finally passed. By them the independence of 
Hungary as a state obtained the fullest recognition. 
The laws, which were the result of the co-operation 
of the crown and the Estates, declared that Hungary 
was an independent country, subject to no other 
country, possessing her own constitution by which 
alone she was to be governed. Important conces- 
sions were also made to the rights of the citizens of 
the country. The privileges of the nobility were 
left intact, but the extreme wing of the reactionary 



390 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

nobles had to rest satisfied with this acquiescence in 
the former state of things, and were not allowed to 
push the narrow-minded measures advocated by 
them. The majority of the Diet was influenced in 
their wise moderation, partly by the exalted views of 
the king, and to a greater extent yet by the disaf- 
fected spirit-rife amongst the people, and especially 
threatening amongst the Serb population of the 
country. The laws secured the liberties of the Prot- 
estant and the Greek united churches, remedied the 
most urgent griefs of the peasantry, and declared 
those who were not noble capable of holding minor 
offices. Although the most important measures of 
reform were put off to a future time by the diet of 
1 790-1 79 1, several preparatory royal commissions 
having been appointed for their consideration, yet 
the work it accomplished was the salutary beginning 
of a liberal legislation which culminated, not quite 
sixty years later, in the declaration of the equal 
rights of the people as the basis of the Hungarian 
commonwealth. 

After the meeting of this Diet, however, very little 
was done in the direction of reforms. The good 
work was interrupted, partly by the premature death 
of Leopold II. (March i, 1792), and partly by the 
warlike period, extending over twenty-five years, 
which, in Hungary as throughout all Europe, claimed 
public attention, and diverted the minds of the lead- 
ers of the nation from domestic topics. Francis I., 
the son and successor of Leopold II., caused himself 
to be crowned in due form, and much was at first 
hoped from his reign. But the Jacobin rule of terror 



REACTION AND NAPOLEONIC WARS. 39 1 

in Paris, and the dread of seeing the revolutionary- 
scenes repeated in his own realm, wrought a com- 
plete change in his character and policy. He soon 
stubbornly rejected every innovation, and gradually 
became a pillar of strength for the European reac- 
tion, that extravagant conservatism which expected 
to efface the effects of the French Revolution by an 
unquestioning adherence to the old and traditional 
order of things. This illiberal spirit of the monarch 
rendered impossible for the time any further reform- 
movement in Hungary. Every question of desirable 
change met with the most obstinate opposition on 
the part of the king, and the reforms submitted by 
the royal commissions were considered by every suc- 
cessive Diet without ever becoming law. The period 
which now followed was gloomy in the extreme, as 
well for Hungary as for the Austrian provinces of 
Francis I. The inhabitants of these countries were 
constantly called upon by the king in the course of 
the wars to make sacrifices in treasure and blood, by 
furnishing recruits and by paying high taxes. At 
the same time the government resorted to the most 
absolute and arbitrary measures to prevent the peo- 
ple from being contaminated with French ideas. 
The press was crushed by severe penalties. Every 
enlightened idea was banished from the schools and 
expunged from the school-books. Only men, for 
whose extreme reactionary spirit the police could 
vouch, were appointed to the professorships or to 
other offices. A system of universal spying and secret 
information caused everybody to be suspected and 
to suffer from private vindictiveness, whilst those 



392 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

who dared to avow liberal views were the objects of 
cruel persecution. 

The numerically few but staunch adherents of 
democracy, being thus* debarred from openly labor- 
ing for their views, endeavored to accomplish their 
purposes by secret combinations. A secret society was 
formed in Pesth, the centre of the political life of the 
country. This league of Hungarian Jacobins had 
but a confused idea of its own aims, and of the 
means of achieving them. They produce, at this 
distance of time, the impression of an organization, 
indulging in crude, exaggerated, and even thought- 
less visions, but theirs, nevertheless, is the credit of 
having been the first society of the kind in the 
country, and of thus furnishing a link in the political 
development of the public spirit in Hungary. Al- 
though the members of the league were unable to 
secure any tangible results, yet they deserve a place 
in the national history as the first martyrs of univer- 
sal freedom and human rights in Hungary, for they 
forfeited their lives or suffered long imprisonments 
for the holy cause. The movement was originally 
planned by Ignatius Martinovics, a learned abbot 
who entered into relations with the Jacobins abroad, 
first with those of Paris, and afterwards with their 
sympathizers in Germany and Austria. With the 
assistance of these he intended to bring about a 
republic of Hungary, and to establish there the 
doctrines of equality and liberty. He organized 
for that purpose a secret society in Pesth, after 
the pattern of the masonic societies, which were 
then flourishing throughout the country. There 



REACTION AND NAPOLEONIC WARS. 393 

were in point of fact two distinct associations, one 
called the reforiners, the other styled the friends of 
liberty and equality. The former knew nothing of 
the designs of the latter, whilst these, occupying a 
higher rank, were fully initiated into the secrets of 
the reformers. The aim of both alike was to insure 
the triumph of the principles of the French Revolu- 
tion. The members recognized each other by secret 
signs, and used in their correspondence a cipher de- 
vised for the purpose. Martinovics' scheme was to 
hoist the revolutionary flag as soon as the increased 
number of members in both societies might render 
such a step advisable. Meanwhile the sole business 
of the members consisted in spreading among the 
people a catechism conceived in a revolutionary 
spirit. 

Martinovics commenced the organization of the 
secret society in the spring of 1794. He was assisted 
in his work by John Laczkovics, formerly a captain 
in the army, Joseph Hajnoczi, an Qx.-alispdn (vice- 
comes or deputy sheriff of a county), and Francis 
Szentmarjay, a young man of distinction, who were 
all zealously engaged in recruiting members for the 
new association. Among the latter, however, but few 
knew of Martinovics' ultimate object, or of his 
French connections. Most of them thought that it 
was his intention to secure the introduction of re- 
forms by lawful means. As to the secret character 
of the society, they looked upon it as a concession 
to the fashion of the period, introduced by the free- 
masons. During the eighteenth century a real mania 
for secrecy of this kind prevailed all over Europe, 



394 THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 

and secret societies sprang up in every quarter for 
purposes which, if pubhcly proclaimed, would have 
met with no opposition whatever. The society of 
the Hungarian Jacobins did not owe its existence to 
subversionary tendencies, but to that eagerness for 
reforms which never ceased to agitate the nation. 
With the exception of a dozen unreflecting men who 
dreamt of overthrowing the Hungarian monarchy 
with the aid of the French, the rank and file were 
entirely composed of men who believed in reforms 
achieved by lawful methods. The leaders them- 
selves, Martinovics, Hajnoczi, and Laczkovics, had 
filled important offices under the Emperor Joseph, 
and had subsequently supported King Leopold 
in his efforts at reform. If Leopold had lived, 
every one of them would have borne a conspicuous 
part in public affairs. But the triumph of the re- 
actionary spirit under the reign of King Francis 
made them conspirators. Those of their friends 
who joined them were all honest and enthusiastic 
patriots, who saw in the success of democratic ideas 
the welfare of Hungary. But they did not look to 
a revolution for the realization of their fond hopes. 
They entered the society for the sole purpose of 
preparing the minds of their countrymen for reforms 
to be obtained by constitutional means. Almost 
every Hungarian writer, who was not in some de- 
pendent position, belonged to the society. Amongst 
these was Francis Kazinczy, the regenerator of Hun- 
garian literature, and one of the most respectable 
members of the literary guild. The French ideas 
found a grateful echo among the intelligent elements 



REACTION AND NAPOLEONIC WARS. 395 

of the country. The reports of French victories 
were hailed with joy in the capital, by the professors 
at the university, and the students, as well as by 
people in the country, especially in the county of 
Zemplen, the home of Kazinczy. Liberty poles were 
erected in several places, many hoping that the vic- 
tories of the French would establish in Hungary the 
reign of Hberty and equality. These demonstrations, 
however, were entirely independent, and were not 
inspired by Martinovics. Such occurrences reflected 
only the effect of foreign events on the public mind 
of Hungary, which had at all times been open to 
influences from abroad, and which did not fail, in 
this instance, to respond to the voice of humanity 
which then rang out through a large portion of the 
Western world. 

The secret society confined its work to procuring 
fresh members and to a wide distribution of their 
political catechisms. The number of the members 
amounted altogether to seventy-five, of whom twenty- 
seven lived in Pesth, and the remainder belonged to 
every part of the country. Only three months had 
elapsed after the organization of the society when 
Martinovics was arrested in Vienna, and Laczkovics, 
Szentmarjay, and Hajnoczy in Pesth. The Viennese 
police had discovered the Austrian fraternity, and, 
finding Martinovics amongst its leaders, detained 
him at once. Martinovics while in prison made a 
full confession of every thing, and the arrests in Hun- 
gary were the consequence. About fifty men were 
thrown into prison. At the time of their arrest, the 
distribution of a few revolutionary pamphlets ex- 



39^ THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

cepted, no deed, subversive of the public order, 
could be traced to the secret society of which they 
were members. It was therefore hoped that the 
government, in punishing them, would act with 
moderation and humanity. King Francis disap- 
pointed such hopes. He ordered them to be prose- 
cuted without mercy, being determined to set a ter- 
rifying example, and, by inaugurating a reactionary 
reign of terror, to discourage his subjects from sym- 
pathizing with French ideas. Eighteen prisoners 
were sentenced to death, but Martinovics and six of 
his companions only were executed. They lost their 
heads by the executioner's sword on the meadow in 
Buda, a spot called to this day the field of blood. 
The remaining prisoners, with few exceptions, were 
sentenced to longer and shorter terms of imprison- 
ment, and two of the suspected escaped arrest by 
suicide. Francis Kazinczy suffered severe imprison- 
ment in an Austrian dungeon during eight long 
years, and numerous other Hungarian writers were 
similarly deprived of their liberty. 

These bloody executions created widespread dis- 
may in the country. No one felt safe, for everybody 
was ignorant of the nature of the crimes with which 
the unhappy victims had been charged. The coun- 
ties remonstrated, in addresses sent to the king, 
against these cruel proceedings, but without any 
effect. Francis pensioned off five liberal professors 
at the university, interdicted the teaching of Kant's 
philosophy at that seat of learning, began to persecute 
every enlightened man in the country, and especially 
delighted in vexing in every possible way the intelli- 



REACTION AND NAPOLEONIC WARS. 39/ 

gent element of Zemplen County. The friends of 
liberty, the men of progress, were thoroughly fright- 
ened. The press, too, was fettered by the govern- 
ment, and thus, by degrees, public life in Hungary 
became torpid and stagnant, the adherents of reform 
were reduced to silence, and innovations had to bide 
their time. The reactionary government achieved a 
complete victory. It banished from the high offices 
even the most moderate men, and filled every place 
of importance with persons who delighted in relent- 
lessly repressing every democratic impulse in Hun- 
gary. 

The Diets which met during this period paid no 
attention whatever to reforms. Their main function 
consisted in voting considerable supplies in money 
and soldiers for the war against the French. The 
Hungarian nation sacrificed a great deal for her king 
during the Napoleonic wars, and, when the hostile 
armies were approaching the border of the country, 
every noble personally took up arms to defend the 
throne of his crowned king with his life and blood. 
The gentry distinguished themselves by their devo- 
tion, especially in 1 809. Napoleon made the Hun- 
garians the most enticing offers in order to seduce 
them from their allegiance to King Francis. He 
called upon them by proclamation to abandon Fran- 
cis, to elect, under the French protectorate, a king 
of their own, and to restore Hungary to complete 
independence. But the Hungarian nation remained 
unshaken in their devotion to the king, and rallied 
round him and the ancient dynasty. The French, 
failing in their scheme, entered Hungary. The 



39^ THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

Hungarians gallantly defended their native soil, 
but were defeated near Raab, owing to the inca- 
pacity of their Austrian generals. During the whole 
Napoleonic contest, to its termination, in 1815, Hun- 
gary made immense sacrifices for the royal throne, 
and thousands of her sons shed their blood in its 
defence, on the most distant battle-fields of Europe. 
Francis but scantily rewarded the fidelity of the 
nation. He always had words of praise for the 
Hungarians, but constantly put off remedying the 
evils they complained of. The long wars, paralyzing 
commerce and trade, had fatally affected the pros- 
perity of the country. The government, in order to 
meet the expenses of the continuous wars, had issued 
paper money to such an enormous extent that the 
paper currency became completely depreciated. The 
depreciation of one florin to one fifth of its face value 
was subsequently officially promulgated by the gov- 
ernment, causing thereby immense losses to the peo- 
ple. To these miseries were added the numerous 
illegal acts and arbitrary and unconstitutional pro- 
ceedings of the government, which continued even 
after Napoleon had been safely chained to the rock 
of St. Helena and peace began anew to dawn upon 
the world. The reign of reaction and absolutism 
which set in in Europe in 181 5 extended its baneful 
influence also over Hungary. The constitution was 
completely ignored by the king and no Diet was con- 
vened. These were sad days for Hungary. There 
was no one to promote her national interests, and 
her advancement in culture was hampered by the 
meddling rule of the Austrian police. And, in- 



REACTION AND NAPOLEONIC WARS. 399 

deed, had not, about this time, the national Htera- 
ture infused a fresh and hopeful spirit into the body 
politic, Hungary would have presented a most de- 
plorable picture of apathy and despair, literature, 
science, and poetry, the cultivation of which was sad- 
ly interrupted by the imprisonment of most of their 
votaries in 1795, in consequence of the Martinovics 
conspiracy, became powerful agencies in rousing the 
nation to renewed political activity. Numerous dis- 
tinguished writers sprang up, exerting themselves to 
inculcate lessons of patriotism and national self-re- 
spect into the minds of the people who had been 
arbitrarily debarred from the most telling influences 
of legitimate culture by the Viennese government. 
The latter at last thought that the time had arrived 
when the absolute government prevailing in her 
Austrian dominions might be established with safe- 
ty also in Hungary. The first attempt made by 
King Francis in this direction was to levy, arbitrarily, 
solely by his own authority and without the consent 
of the Diet (which was necessary under the law), 
35,000 recruits for the army. This illegal exaction 
of the king created a tremendous commotion amongst 
the people, and resulted in a most desperate conflict 
between the Hungarian nation and the Viennese 
government. The political contest which lasted 
five years newly inflamed the national enthusiasm. 
King Francis finally saw the error of his ways, ac- 
knowledged the illegality of his action, and returned 
to constitutional government. He summoned the 
Diet, in 1825, which, continuing the work of reform 
checked in 1791, gave the impulse to a new era of 
modern progress in Hungary. 




CHAPTER XV. 

SZECHENYI, KOSSUTH, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR 
LIBERTY IN 1848-1849. 



On one of the most picturesque positions in Buda- 
Pesth, on the left bank of the majestic Danube, stands 
the bronze statue of Stephen Szechenyi, the greatest 
Hungarian of this century. The piety of the nation 
has placed it in the midst of her most conspicuous 
creations. At its feet rolls the mighty river whose 
regulation was commenced by Szechenyi, who made 
it a line of communication in the commercial sys- 
tem of Europe ; in front is seen the grand sus- 
pension bridge, and beyond it is visible the mouth 
of the tunnel which, piercing the castled mountain 
of Buda, connects the dispersed parts of the city. 
In the rear rise the palatial edifices of the Hun- 
garian Academy of Sciences, which owes its exist- 
ence to Szechenyi's munificence, and round about 
stretches noisy, surging Buda-Pesth, to whose embel- 
lishment and enlightenment no one ever devoted 
himself so zealously as Stephen Szechenyi. Every 
thing surrounding the statue reminds us of the tran- 
scendent genius of Szechenyi, who raised for himself 
by his indefatigable labors, which form a link between 

400 



lilliiiliiiifliiiiiSII^ 




402 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

old and modern Hungary, a monument more lasting 
and grander than the one cast in bronze. 

Stephen Szechenyi was born on the 2ist of Sep- 
tember, 1 791. He was the scion of a family which 
had given many distinguished men to their country, 
and with whom patriotism was traditional. His 
father. Count Francis, was the founder of the great- 
est institute of Hungary, having public culture for 
its aim, the National Museum of Buda-Pesth, which is 
now reckoned one of the finest and richest of the 
kind in Europe. Count Francis clung with passion- 
ate devotion to the cause of his country. The ten- 
der mind of his son Stephen was often puzzled to 
see his father melancholy and lost in thought, and 
later only, when grown to manhood, did he learn 
that his father had been grieving over the backward- 
ness of his country. Count Stephen inherited the 
patriotic sentiments of his father, and never for a mo- 
ment lost sight of the one great object of his life, to 
revive the now decaying nation, which had acted so 
proud a part in the past, and to secure for her a 
better future by promoting her material and cultural 
interests. Stephen Szechenyi became the apostle of 
this patriotic mission ; he devoted his whole life to 
this one lofty thought, studying for many years, re- 
flecting, travelhng, gathering knowledge, and when 
the hour arrived to enter upon the scene of action, 
he took the lead of the nation, aptly equipped for 
the severe task. 

He finished his studies under the roof of his father, 
who was a man of high culture. The turmoils of 
the Napoleonic wars, shaking all Europe and with it 




^iv 7- 



OLD GYPSY WOMAN, 



404 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

Hungary, allowed but scant opportunity for peaceful 
avocations when Count Stephen had reached his 
sixteenth year. He accordingly entered the army 
and gallantly took part, as a young officer, in the 
wars of the period, being present at the famous 
battle of Leipsic. The Congress of Vienna put an 
end to the wars which had raged in Europe for 
twenty-five years, and during the protracted period 
of peace following it, Szechenyi bestowed his atten- 
tion upon the affairs of his country. Before taking 
an active part, however, he travelled for a consider- 
able time through Italy, France, and England, and 
only after having become familiar with the advanced 
civilization of foreign countries did he return to his 
own, filled with grand ideas, Avith lofty, patriotic 
feelings, his brain seething, and his soul thirsting for 
action, in order to conquer for himself a sphere of 
public activity. 

The Diet of 1825 afforded him a fitting oppor- 
tunity in this direction. During the thirteen years 
preceding the convoking of this Diet the country had 
been ruled in the most absolute manner. The govern- 
ment ignored, during that period, the constitution, col- 
lected by force of arms and arbitrarily illegal taxes, 
filled, in the same despotic way, the ranks of the 
army, fettered the liberty of the press, and deprived 
the nation of her ancient rights. These acts of vio- 
lence stirred up the indignation of the country, and 
the natural reaction was still more roused and fos- 
tered by the dawning Hungarian literature which 
proclaimed a brighter future to the nation. Csoko- 
nai, Francis Kazinczy, Alexander and Charles Kis- 




HALT OF GYPSIES. 



406 THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 

faludy, Michael Vorosmarty, Francis Kolcsey, and 
other eminent writers were the fathers of a new era 
in Hungarian Hterature, and by their works they 
kindled the national feeling and roused the public 
spirit. The nation awoke and was eager to march in 
the footsteps of the civilization of Europe. She 
only lacked a leader, but in the course of the delib- 
erations of the Diet of 1825, that leader was found. 

Stephen Szechenyi, being a member of the Upper 
House by right of birth, took his seat there among 
the aristocracy of the land. His first act was des- 
tined to be the precursor of a new epoch in the his- 
tory of the nation. On the 25th of October he made 
a short speech ; his manner was embarrassed and 
confused ; but he spoke in Hungarian, a proceeding 
which was looked upon at that time as a revolution- 
ary act, full of boldness, and which excited the ut- 
tnost indignation of the highest circles. The Latin 
language had until then remained, in keeping with 
the traditions of the past, the official language of 
the House of Magnates. Szechenyi was the first 
magnate who dared to cut loose from the ancient 
tradition, and, although a great portion of his fellow- 
magnates, especially the older ones, were shocked at 
the innovation, yet the number of Hungarian-speaking 
great lords continually increased after this, and the 
bold stand he took on that occasion had much to do 
with the restoration of the national language to its 
rightful place. 

Shortly after the Lower House witnessed the tri- 
umph achieved by him in the cause of Hungarian 
culture. During the preliminary sessions preceding 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 407 

the plenary ones, the question had been deHberated 
upon for several days as to the best means of foster- 
ing the national language. Szechenyi, with several 
of his noble friends, was present at one of these con- 
ferences, listening and looking on. Each deputy in 
turn stated his views on the subject. One of them, 
Paul Nagy, a distinguished orator of the opposition, 
declared, with an air of deep conviction, that to cul- 
tivate the Hungarian language with a view to make 
it successfully compete with the Germanizing ten- 
dencies of the government, and with the Latin 
language, it was necessary to establish a Hungarian 
academy of sciences. To accomplish this, he added, 
money was needed, and this could not be obtained 
from the government, which was hostile to the 
scheme. Let the nation furnish the money, the 
great lords, the owners of the vast fortunes and 
landed estates, setting first a good example to the 
rest. The effect of these kindling words was a thril- 
ling one. Szechenyi immediately stepped forward, 
and, addressing the presiding officer, asked leave to 
say a few words. Amidst the general attention of 
those present he briefly stated that he was ready to 
contribute one year's entire income from his es- 
tates to a fund wherewith to found an institute 
whose object would be the fostering of the Hun- 
garian language. These simple words were received 
with a storm of applause. A remarkable spectacle 
now ensued. One man after another arose eager to 
contribute to the fund of the future Hungarian Acad- 
emy of Sciences, and the sum was soon swelled 
to 154,000 florins, Szechenyi's contribution alone 



408 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

amounting to 60,000 florins. The institute was soon 
established, and, thanks to the patriotic support of 
the nation, the funds of the Academy exceed at pres- 
ent 2,000,000 florins. The activity of this institute 
has proved, for the last fifty years, most beneficial 
to the development of the Hungarian language and 
the advancement of science in the country. 

This munificent act placed ^echenyi at once in the 
front ranks of the nation, and the very enthusiasm 
roused by his generous patriotism was the means of 
exciting his best energies, and of spurring him on to 
further action. Szechenyi, although acting, on the 
whole, with the exceedingly moderate opposition, 
which was conservative and not unfrequently quite 
reactionary, influenced as it was by the famous pol- 
icy of Prince Metternich, never became a member 
of either of the political parties. His leading idea 
was that the first thing to be done was to im- 
prove the material and intellectual condition of 
the people, and to increase the prosperity and 
culture of the country. He had founded in the 
interest of civilization the Hungarian Academy, and 
now he labored enthusiastically to improve the 
commercial, industrial, and economical condition of 
the country. In this work he had to contend with 
all sorts of obstacles and prejudices on the part not 
only of the higher circles, but of the very class that 
was to be benefited by his reforms. But Szechenyi 
did not lose heart, and, undisturbed by many a bitter 
experience, he undeviatingly pursued his own course, 
and carried through with an iron will every measure 
deemed beneficial by him. His busy brain never 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 4O9 

ceased to devise new patriotic schemes, and to make 
them acceptable to the people. He won back the 
estranged aristocracy of the country, and assigned to 
them a leading position in national politics ; he 
strove to raise the capital to a European level, and 
advanced the national prosperity by the discovery 
of new resources, the opening of new roads of com- 
munication, and by the creation of many useful 
public institutions. He had equal regard for the in- 
terests of all classes, from the lord to the peasant, 
and thus strove, while yet surrounded by the anti- 
quated order of things, to awaken the people to a 
sense of national consciousness, and to promote the 
recognition of the solidarity of interests between all 
the classes of the nation. His busy brain embraced 
every public interest, and he exerted every social 
and economical agency to ripen in the nation the 
notions of modern European civilization. He was a 
powerful agitator, in equal degrees master of the 
sword and the pen, and although his whole individual- 
ity, his character, and his habits bore the stamp of 
the aristocratic circle in which he was born and edu- 
cated, yet, by dint of his conspicuous and many- 
sided labors, he in reality was the most indefatigable 
champion and pioneer of democratic ideas in his own 
country. 

His first great literary work (a smaller one had pre- 
ceded it), entitled ''Credit," was published in 1830, and 
in it he treated of economical questions of the most im- 
mediate importance to the country. It was a work 
of great power, marked by scholarly thoroughness, 
practical statesmanship, and poetic elevation, and 



4IO THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

produced an extraordinary sensation throughout the 
country. It was read everywhere, in the palaces of 
the magnates, in the mansions of the provincial 
gentry, and in the homes and offices of merchants 
and tradesmen. The book was spoken of in the 
most exalted terms by some, while others declared 
its author to be a communist and revolutionary agi- 
tator. The foes to progress, the defenders of the 
decaying privileges of the nobility, burned the book, 
while the friends of the new ideas, and especially the 
rising generation, saw in it the gospel of a new era. 
It was in this work that Szechenyi, addressing the 
generation that vainly clung to the reminiscences of 
the past, said : *' Do not constantly trouble your- 
selves with the vanished glories of the past, but 
rather let your determined patriotism bring about 
the prosperity of the beloved fatherland. Many there 
are who think that Hungary has been, but for my 
part I like to think that Hungary shall be,'' 

Under the influence of these exalted ideas Szech- 
enyi persevered in his practical efforts for the com- 
mon weal. He wrote a great deal up to the time of 
his death, and some of his works are justly ranked 
among the gems of Hungarian literature. But more 
precious than these are his practical creations, which 
still, for the most part, survive, and which are des- 
tined to perpetuate his fame for many centuries to 
come. His busy mind attended to every variety of 
matters of public concern. Thus it was he who in- 
troduced horse-racing into the country, not for the 
purpose of affording a mere gentlemanly pastime, 
but with the object of developing horse-breeding in 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 4I I 

Hungary, an object which has been very success- 
fully accomplished by the new sport. In further- 
ance of this object he formed a society which subse- 
quently became the National Breeding Association, 
which flourishes to this day. In order to afford 
to the gentry permanently a rallying and central 
point in the country, he established the Buda-Pesth 
National Casino, a social club of high distinction, still 
in existence and enjoying an enviable reputation in 
the best European circles. He took quite an active 
part in the management of the new Academy of 
Sciences ; zealously supported the efforts made to 
found a permanent national theatre, efforts which 
subsequently proved successful ; started and realized 
the scheme for building a permanent bridge across 
the Danube, connecting Pesth and Buda, and for the 
construction of a tunnel under the castled mountain 
of Buda ; conducted for years the work of regulating 
the Danube, especially in the vicinity of the Vas- 
kapu (Iron Gate) ; and also aided in the estab- 
lishment of the Danube Steam Navigation Com- 
pany, which at this day has hundreds of ships 
engaged in the local and export trade. His most 
glorious work, however, was the regulation of the 
Theiss, resulting, in the course of time, in the re- 
claiming of a marshy territory containing one hun- 
dred and fifty square miles, and turning it into a 
rich and fertile soil. His mind was teeming, besides, 
with various schemes looking to the building of rail- 
ways, and to the promotion of commerce and indus- 
try ; but all these various undertakings were marked 
by the same steady spirit of patriotic endeavor. 



412 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

For fifteen years, up to 1840, the popularity of 
Szechenyi had gone on increasing throughout the 
country, and his name was cherished by every good 
patriot in the land. About this time, however, the 
great statesman was destined to come into collision 
with a man who was his peer in genius and abilities. 
The two patriots were representatives of different 
methods, and in the contest produced by the shock of 
antagonistic tendencies Szechenyi was compelled to 
yield to Louis Kossuth, his younger rival. Although 
there was no material difference between their aims, 
for both wished to see their country great, free, consti- 
tutionally governed, prosperous, and advanced in 
civilization, yet in the ways and means employed by 
them to attain that aim they were diametrically 
opposed to each other. Szechenyi, who descended 
from a family of ancient and aristocratic lineage, 
and presented himself to the nation with connec- 
tions reaching up into the highest circles of the court, 
with the lustre of his ancient name, and with his im- 
mense fortune, wished to secure the happiness of his 
country by quite different methods from those 
adopted by Louis Kossuth, a child of the people, 
who, although he was a nobleman by birth, yet be- 
longed to that poorer class of gentry who support 
themselves by their own exertions, and who, in Hun- 
gary, are destined to fulfil the mission of the citizen- 
classes of other countries. It is from these classes of 
the gentry that are, for the most part, recruited the 
tradespeople, the smaller land-owners, professional 
men, writers, subordinate officials, lawyers, physicians, 
clergymen, teachers, and professors. By virtue of 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 413 

their nobility, it is true, they belonged to the priv- 
ileged class of the country, and were not subjected 
to the humiliations of the oppressed peasantry, yet 
they had to earn a living by their own work, and 
were therefore not only accessible to, but were ready ' 
enthusiastically to receive, the lofty message of lib- 
erty and equality which the French Revolution of 
1830 began to proclaim anew throughout all Europe. 
These doctrines formed a sharp contrast to the views 
of Count Stephen Szechenyi, views which, owing to 
the social position of the man who held them, were 
not devoid of a certain aristocratic tinge, and accord- 
ing to which the most important part in the regenera- 
tion of the Hungarian nation was assigned to the 
aristocracy. It was a part, however, which the Hun- 
garian aristocracy was itself by no means disposed to 
assume. Among its younger members, indeed, could 
be found, here and there, enthusiastic men who were 
devotedly attached to the person of the lordly re- 
former, but the great majority of his class were hos- 
tilely arrayed against Szechenyi's aims, and, obstruct- 
ing the granting of even the most inoffensive demands 
of the nation, supported the Viennese government, 
which was rigidly opposed to political reforms and to 
any changes in the public institutions of the country. 
This attitude of the aristocracy compelled Szechenyi 
to avoid as much as possible all questions concerning 
constitutionality and liberty, and to confine the work 
of reform chiefly to the sphere of internal improve- 
ments. The only way in which he could hope to 
obtain the support of the court of Vienna and of the 
majority of the Upper House for his politico-econom- 



414 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

ical measures, was to remain as neutral as possible in 
politics. The idea which chiefly governed his actions 
was that the country should be first strengthened in- 
ternally, and that afterwards it would be easy for the 
nation to bring about the triumph of her national 
and political aspirations. 

After 1840, however, the bulk of the nation, and 
especially the small gentry whose preponderating 
influence was making itself continually felt, were 
unwilling to follow Szechenyi in his one-sided policy. 
The reformatory work of Szecheny during the pre- 
ceding fifteen years had educated public opinion up 
to new and great ideas, but the leaders of that 
public opinion were now to be found in the House of 
Representatives in the persons of Francis Deak and 
Louis Kossuth. They wished to obtain for their 
country both political liberty and material prosperity. 
They knew the effect of political institutions upon 
the material well-being and civilization of a nation, 
and they no longer deemed it possible to attain 
these objects without a modern constitutional gov- 
ernment. Louis Kossuth, who was born in 1802, 
was the very incarnation of the great democratic 
ideas of his age. He was entirely a man of work 
and entered the legal profession, after having com- 
pleted his studies with great distinction, for the 
purpose of supporting himself by it. Kossuth 
was present at the Diet of 1832, when the gov- 
ernment, which conducted itself most brutally 
and arbitrarily towards the press, refused to allow 
the newspapers to print reports of the deliberations 
of the Diet in spite of the repeated urgings by 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 415 

the deputies for such an authorization, and it was 
owing to his ingenuity that this prohibition was 
evaded. The censorship was exercised on printed 
matter only and did not extend to manuscripts. 
Kossuth wrote out the reports of the Diet himself, 
had numerous copies made of them in writing, and 
circulated them, for a slight fee, in every part of the 
country, where they were looked for with feverish 
expectation, and, owing to the spirit of opposition 
with which they were colored, were read with the 
greatest eagerness. This manuscript newspaper pro- 
duced quite a revolutionary movement amongst the 
people, frightening even the Austrian government. 
The latter now attempted to silence Kossuth by 
gentle means, promising him high offices and a pen- 
sion, but he refused the enticing offers and continued 
his work for the benefit of the nation. Foiled in 
the attempt to lure Kossuth from his duty, the gov- 
ernment resorted to violence, seized the lithographic 
apparatus by means of which Kossuth planned to 
multiply his manuscript newspaper, and gave direc- 
tions to the postmasters to detain and open all those 
sealed packages which were supposed to contain the 
reports. But these arbitrary proceedings of the 
government could not put an end to the circulation 
of the newspaper ; the country gentlemen, by their 
own servants, continued to send each other single 
copies, and the matter was given up only when the 
Diet ceased to be in session. Then Kossuth, at the 
urgent request of his friends and, one might say, 
of the whole country, started a new manuscript 
newspaper at Buda-Pesth, which reported the delib- 



41^ THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

eratlons of the county assemblies. The effect pro- 
duced by this new paper was fraught with even 
greater consequences than the first had created, for 
it was instrumental in bringing the counties into 
contact with each other, thus affording them an op- 
portunity to combine against the government. The 
latter, however, soon prohibited its publication, but 
the prohibition gave rise to a storm of indignation 
throughout the whole country. The counties in 
solid array addressed protests to the government 
against the illegal act and on behalf of Kossuth, 
who continued to publish the paper in spite of the 
inhibition. The government at last resorted to the 
most barefaced brutality. Kossuth, the brave cham- 
pion of liberty, its eloquent pen and herald, was 
dragged to a damp and dark subterranean prison- 
cell in the castle of Buda, and detained there, whilst 
his father and mother and his family, who were 
looking to him solely for their support, were robbed 
of the aid of their natural protector. 

Although at that period lawlessness was the order 
of the day, yet this last cruel and illegal act of the 
government greatly exasperated the public mind, 
which was already in a ferment of excitement. But 
while the excited passions raged throughout the 
country, the government, nothing loth, caused Kos- 
suth to be prosecuted for high treason, and, having 
obtained his conviction, had him sentenced to an 
imprisonment of three years. Kossuth applied 
himself during his detention to serious studies, and 
acquired also, while in prison, the English language 
to such an extent that he was enabled to ad- 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 41/ 

dress in that language, during his exile, with great 
effect and impressiveness, large audiences both in 
Enerland and in the United States of America. His 

o 

imprisonment lasted two long years, after the lapse of 
which he obtained, in 1840, a pardon in consequence 
of the repeated and urgent representations of the 
Diet. 

Kossuth returned to the scene of his former 
activity as the martyr of free speech, and the victim 
to the cause of the nation. He very soon found a 
new field in which to labor. The government per- 
ceived at last that violence was of little avail, and 
that those questions which were occupying the 
minds to such a degree could no longer be kept 
from being publicly discussed by the press. Kossuth 
now obtained permission to edit a political daily 
paper. Its publication was commenced under the 
title of Pesti Hirlap (Pesth Newspaper) in 1841, and 
may be said to have created the political daily press 
of Hungary. It disseminated new ideas among the 
masses, stirred up the indifferent to feel an interest 
in the affairs of the country and gave a purpose to 
the national aspirations. It proclaimed democratic 
reforms in every department ; the abolition of the 
privileges of the nobility and of their exemption 
from taxation, equal rights and equal burdens for 
all the citizens of the state, and the extension of 
public instruction, and it endeavored to restore the 
Hungarian nationality to the place it was entitled to 
claim in the organism of the state. 

The wealth of ideas thus daily commu-nicated to 
the country appeared in the most attractive garb, for 



41 8 THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 

Kossuth possessed a masterly style, and his lead- 
ers and shorter articles showed off to advantage 
so many unexpected beauties of the Hungarian lan- 
guage, that his readers were fairly enchanted and 
carried away by them. His articles were a happy 
compound of poetical elevation and oratorical power, 
gratifying common-sense and the imagination at the 
same time, appealing by their lucid exposition to the 
reader's intelligence, and exciting and warming this 
fancy by their fervor. Kossuth always rightly 
guessed what questions most interested the nation, 
and the daily press became, in his hands, a power 
in Hungary, electrifying the masses, who were always 
re'ady to give their unconditional support to his bold 
and far-reaching schemes. 

The extraordinary influence obtained by Kossuth 
through his paper frightened Szechenyi, and, to even 
a greater degree, those whose prejudices were shocked 
or ancient privileges and interests were endangered 
by the democratic agitations for reform. Kossuth 
was attacked in books, pamphlets, and newspapers, 
but he came out victorious from all contests. In 
vain did Szechenyi himself, backed by his great 
authority in the land, assail him, declaring that he 
did not object to Kossuth's ideas, but that his man- 
ner and his tactics were reprehensible, and that the 
latter were sure to lead to a revolution. The great 
mass of the people felt instinctively that revolution 
had become a necessity and was unavoidable, if Hun- 
gary was to pass from the old mediaeval order to the 
establishment of modern institutions, and was to be- 
come a state where equality before the law should 



420 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

be the ruling standard. The masses were strength- 
ened in this conviction by the unreasonable, short- 
sighted, and violent policy pursued by the gov- 
ernment of Vienna, which obstructed the slightest 
reforms in the ancient institutions and opposed every 
national aspiration, and under whose protecting wing 
the reactionary elements of the Upper House were 
constantly paralyzing the noblest and best efforts made 
by the Lower House for the public weal, while the 
same government arbitrarily supported claims of the 
Catholic clergy, in flat contradiction to the rights 
and liberties of the various denominations inhabiting 
the country. The government, in its antipathy to 
the national movement, went even further. It se- 
cretly incited the other nationalities, especially the 
Croats, against the Hungarians, and thus planted the 
seeds from which sprang the subsequent great civil 
war. In observing the dangerous symptoms pre- 
ceding the last-mentioned movement, and the bloody 
scenes and fights provoked at every election by the 
hirelings of the government, in order to intimidate 
the adherents of reform, the friends of progress be- 
came more and more convinced that the period of 
moderation, such as preached by Szecheny i, had passed 
by, and must give way to that resolute policy, advo- 
cated by Kossuth, which recoiled from no conse- 
quences. Numerous magnates, all the chief leaders 
of the gentry, boasting of enlightenment and patriot- 
ism, and imbued with European culture, rallied 
around Kossuth, until finally the public opinion of 
the country and the enthusiasm of which he was the 
centre caused him to be returned, in 1847, together 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY, 42 1 

with Count Louis Batthyanyi, as deputy from the 
foremost county of the country, the county of Pesth. 

During the first months the Diet of i847-'8, which 
was to raise Hungary to the rank of those countries 
that proclaimed equal rights and possessed a respon- 
'sible parliamentary government, differed very little 
from the one preceding it. The opposition initiated, 
as before, great reforms, but there was no one who 
believed that their realization was near at hand. 
Kossuth repeatedly addressed the House, and soon 
convinced his audience that he was as irresistible an 
orator as he had proved powerful as a writer. But 
there was nothing to indicate that the country was 
on the eve of a great transformation. 

The revolution of February, 1848, which broke out 
in Paris, changed, as if by magic, the relative posi- 
tions of Austria and Hungary. Metternich's system 
of government, which was opposed to granting liberty 
to the people, collapsed at once. The storm of popu- 
lar indignation swept it away like a house built of 
cards. At the first news of the occurrences in Paris 
Kossuth asked in the Lower House for the creation 
of a responsible ministry. Kossuth's motion was 
favorably received by the Lower House, but in the 
Upper House it was rejected, the government not 
being yet alive to the real state of affairs, and s^l 
hoping by a system of negation to frustrate the 
wishes of the people. But very soon the revolution 
reared its head in Vienna itself, and the wishes of 
the Hungarian people, uttered at Buda-Pesth, re- 
ceived thereby a new and powerful advocate. 

At that time the Hungarian Diet still met at 



422 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

Presburg, but the two sister cities of Buda and 
Pesth formed the real capital of the country, and 
were the centre of commerce, industry, science, 
and literature. Michael Vorosmarty, the poet laure- 
ate of the nation, lived in Pesth, and there the twin 
stars of literature, Alexander Petofi and Maurus 
Jokai, shone on the national horizon. Jokai, who is 
still living and enjoys a w^orld-wide fame as a novelist, 
and Petofi, the eminent poet, who was destined to 
become the Tyrtseus of his nation, were then both 
young men, full of enthusiasm and intrepid energy, 
and teeming with great ideas. About these two 
gathered the other writers and youth of the univer- 
sity, and all of them, helping each other, contrived, 
upon hearing the news of the sudden revolutions in 
Paris and Vienna, to enact in Buda-Pesth the blood- 
less revolution of the 15th of March, 1848, which 
obtained the liberty of the press for the nation, and 
at the same time, in a solemn manifesto, gave ex- 
pression to the wishes of the Hungarians in the matter 
of reform. The only act of violence these revolu- 
tionary heroes were guilty of was the entering of a 
printing establishment, whose proprietor, afraid of 
the government, had refused to print the admirable 
poem of Petofi, entitled Talpra Magyar (Up Mag- 
yar), and doing the printing there themselves. The 
first verse of this poem, which subsequently became 
the war song of the national movement, runs in a 
literal translation thus : 

Arise, oh Magyar ! thy country calls. 
Here is the time, now or never. 
Shall we be slaves or free ? 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 423 

That is the question — choose ! 

We swear by the God of the Magyars, 

We swear, to be slaves no longer ! 

This soul-stirring poem was improvised by Petofi 
under the inspiration of the moment, and at the same 
establishment where it was first printed was also 
printed a proclamation which contained twelve ar- 
ticles setting forth the wishes of the people. 

While the capital was resounding with the rejoicings 
and triumphant shouts of her exulting inhabitants, 




HOUSE AT KRAPINA. 



the proper department of the government for the 
carrying through of these movements, the Diet, as- 
sembled at Presburg, lost no time, and set to work 
with great energy to reform the institutions of Hun- 
gary, constitutionally, and to put into the form of 
law the ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity. 
The salutary legislation met now with no opposition, 
either from the Upper House or from the court at 
Vienna, and in a short time the Diet passed the cele- 
brated acts of 1848, which, having received the royal 



424 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

sanction, were proclaimed as laws on the nth of 
April, at Presburg, amidst the wildest enthusiasm, in 
the presence of King Ferdinand V. 

By these laws Hungary became a modern state, 
possessing a constitutional government. The gov- 
ernment was vested in a ministry responsible to 
parliament, all the inhabitants of the country were 
declared equal before the law, the privileges of the 
nobility were abolished, the soil was declared free, 
and the right of free worship accorded to all. The 
institution of national guards was introduced, the 
utmost liberty of the press was secured, Transyl- 
vania became a part of the mother country — in a 
word, the national and political condition of the 
country was reorganized, in every particular, in har- 
mony with the spirit, the demands, and aspirations 
of our age. At the same time the men placed at 
the head of the government were such as possessed 
the fullest confidence of the people. The first min- 
istry was composed of the most distinguished patriots. 
Count Louis Batthyanyi was the president, and acting 
in conjunction with him were Francis Deak, as min- 
ister of justice, Count Stephen Szechenyi, as minister 
of home affairs, and Louis Kossuth, as minister of 
finance. 

The great mass of the people hailed with bound- 
less enthusiasm the new government and the mag- 
nificent reforms. The transformation, however, had 
been so sudden and unexpected, and the old aristo- 
cratic world, with all its institutions and its ancient or- 
ganization, had been swept away with such vehement, 
precipitation, that even under ordinary circumstances 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 



425 



in the absence of all opposition, the new ideas and 
tendencies could have hardly entered into the political 
life of the nation without causing no little confusion 
and disorder. But, in addition to these natural draw- 
backs, the new order of things had to contend with 
certain national elements in the population, which, 
feeling themselves injured in their real or imaginary 




HUNGARIAN GYPSY. 



interests, were bent on mischief, hoping to be able 
to rob the nation, in the midst of the ensuing troubles, 
of the great political prize she had won. Certain 
circles of the court and classes of the people strove 
equally hard to surround with difficulties the practi- 
cal introduction of the constitution of 1848. The 
court and the standing army, the party of the sol- 



426 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

dier class, feared that their commanding position 
would be impaired by the predominating influence 
of the people. The non-Hungarian portion of the 
inhabitants, choosing to ignore the fact that the new 
laws secured, without distinction of nationality, equal 
rights to every citizen of the state, were apprehen- 
sive lest the liberal constitution would chiefly benefit 
the Hungarian element of the nation. They, there- 
fore, encouraged by the secret machinations of the 
government of Vienna, took up arms, in order to 
drag the country, which was preparing to take pos- 
session of her new liberties, into a civil war. The 
Croatians, under the lead of Ban Jellachich, and the 
Wallachs and Serbs, led by other imperial officers, 
and yielding to their persuasions, rose in rebellion 
against Hungary, and began to persecute, plunder, 
and murder the Hungarians living among them. 
Dreadful atrocities were committed in the south- 
ern and eastern portions of Hungary, hundreds 
and hundreds of families were massacred in cold 
blood, and entire villages and cities were deserted 
by their inhabitants, just as had previously happened 
at the approach of the Turks, and thousands were 
compelled to abandon their all to the rebels, in order 
to escape with their bare lives. In the course of a 
few weeks, the flames of rebellion had spread over a 
large part of the country, and the Hungarian ele- 
ment, instead of enjoying the liberties won for the 
whole nation after a bitter struggle of many decades, 
was under the sad necessity of resorting to armed 
force in order to re-establish the internal peace. 
The Hungarians now had to prove on the battle-field 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY, 42/ 

and in bloody engagements that they were worthy 
of liberty and capable of defending it. 

The government, which, by virtue of the new laws, 
had meanwhile transferred its seat to Buda-Pesth, 
displayed extraordinary energy in the face of the sad 
difficulties besetting it. As it was impossible to rely 
upon the Austrian soldiers who were still in the 
country, it exerted itself to create and to organize 
a national army. A portion of the national guard en- 
tered the national army under the name oi honveds (6.Q- 
fenders of the country), a name which became before 
long famous throughout the civilized world for the 
glorious military achievements coupled with it. The 
Hungarian soldiers, garrisoning the Austrian princi- 
palities, hastened home,, braving the greatest dan- 
gers, partly accompanied by their officers and partly 
without them. The famous Hungarian hussars, es- 
pecially, returned in great number to offer their ser- 
vices to their imperilled country. But all this proved 
insufficient, and as soon as the National Assembly, 
elected under the new constitution, met, Kossuth, 
who had been the life and soul of the government 
during this trying and critical period, called upon the 
nation to raise large armies for the defence of the 
country. The session of the nth of July, during 
which Kossuth introduced in the House of Represen- 
tatives his motions relating to the subject, presented 
a scene which beggars all description. Kossuth as- 
cended the tribune pale and haggard with illness, but 
the never-ceasing applause which greeted him after 
the first few sentences soon gave him back his strength 
and his marvellous oratorical power. When he had 



428 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

concluded his speech and submitted to the House 
his request for 200,000 soldiers and the necessary 
money, a momentary pause of deep silence ensued. 
Suddenly Paul Nyary, the leader of the opposition, 
arose, and lifting his right arm towards heaven, ex- 
claimed : " We grant it ! " The House was in a fever 
of patriotic excitement ; all the deputies rose from 
their seats, shouting: ''We grant it ; we grant it ! " 
Kossuth, with tears in his eyes, bowed to the repre- 
sentatives of the people and said : " You have risen 
like one man, and I bow down before the greatness 
of the nation." 

These sacrifices on the part of the country had be- 
come a matter of urgent necessity. The Serb and 
Wallach insurrection assumed every day larger pro- 
portions, while the Croats, under the leadership of 
Jellachich, entered Hungarian territory with the fixed 
determination of depriving the nation of her constitu- 
tional liberties. But the Hungarian government was 
already able to send an army against the Croatians, 
who were marching on Buda-Pesth, plundering and 
laying waste every thing before them. They were 
surrounded by the Hungarian forces, and a portion 
of their army, nine thousand men strong, were 
compelled to lay down their arms, while Jellachich, 
with his remaining forces, precipitately fled from the 
country. The young Hungarian army had thus 
proved itself equal to the task of repulsing the 
attack of the Croats, but the recent events were 
nevertheless fraught with the gravest consequences. 
The news of the Croatian invasion filled the Hun- 
garians with deep anxiety, and the extraordinary 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. A2<^ 

excitement caused by it cast a permanent cloud 
over the soul of that noble and great man, Count 
Szechenyi. The mind of the great patriot who had 
initiated the national movement gave way under 
the strain of the frightful rumors coming from the 
Croatian frontier. He had been ailing for some time 
back, and his nervousness constantly increased under 
the pressure of the great events following each 
other in rapid succession, so that when the news 
came that the enemy had invaded the country 
he thought that Hungary was lost. His despair 
darkened his mind and he sought death in the 
waves of the Danube. His family removed him to 
a private asylum near Vienna, where he recovered 
his mental faculties, and even wrote several books. 
But he was never entirely cured of his hallucina- 
tion, and, exasperated by the vexations he was sub- 
jected to by the Viennese government, even in the 
asylum, the great patriot put an end to his own life 
on the 8th of April, i860, by a shot from a pistol. 
Jellachich's incursion had other important political 
consequences. The attack on Hungary had been 
made by Jellachich in the name of the Viennese 
government, and the intimate connection between 
the domestic disorders and the court of Vienna 
became more and more apparent. This state of 
things rendered inevitable a struggle between Hun- 
gary and the unconstitutional action of the court. 
The Austrian forces were arming against Hungary 
on every side. Vienna, too, rose in rebellion against 
the court, and now the Hungarians hastened to assist 
the revolutionists in the Austrian capital. Unfortu- 



430 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

nately the young national army was not ripe yet for 
so great a military enterprise, and Prince Windisch- 
gratz, having crushed the revolution in Vienna, in- 
vaded Hungary. 

A last attempt was now made by the Hungarians 
to negotiate peace with the court, but it failed, 
Windischgratz being so elated with his success that 
nothing short of unconditional submission on the 
part of the country would satisfy him. To accept 
such terms would have been both cowardly and 
suicidal, and the nation, therefore, driven to the sad 
alternative of war, determined rather to perish glori- 
ously than to pusillanimously submit to be enslaved 
by the court. They followed the lead of Kossuth, 
who was now at the head of the government, whilst 
Gorgei was the commander-in-chief of the Hungarian 
army. The two names of Kossuth and Gorgei soon 
constituted the glory of the nation. Whilst these 
two acted in harmony they achieved brilliant tri- 
umphs, but their personal antagonism greatly con- 
tributed, at a subsequent period, to the calamities of 
the country. 

Windischgratz took possesion of Buda in January, 
1849, thus compelling Kossuth to transfer the seat 
of government to Debreczen, whilst Gorgei with- 
drew with his army to the northern part of Hungary, 
but the national army fought victoriously against 
the Serbs and Wallachs, and the situation of the 
Hungarians had, in the course of the winter, become 
more favorable all over the country. The genius of 
Kossuth brought again and again, as if by magic, 
fresh armies into the field, and he was indefatigable 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY, 43 1 

in organizing the defence of the country. Distin- 
guished generals hke Gorgei, Klapka, Damjanics. 
Bern, and others transformed the raw recruits, in a 
wonderfully short time, into properly disciplined 
troops, who were able to hold their own and bravely 
contend against the old and tried imperial forces 
whom they put to flight at every point. 

The fortunes of war changed in favor of the Hun- 
garians in the latter part of January, 1849. Klapka 
achieved the first triumph, which was followed by 
the brilliant victory won by one of Gorgei's divisions 
commanded by Guyon in the battle of Branyiszko, 
and very soon the Hungarian armies acted on the 
offensive at all points. In the course of a few weeks 
they achieved, chiefly under Gorgei's leadership, 
great and complete victories over the enemy near 
Szolnok, Hatvan, Bicske, Vacz, Isaszegh, Nagy 
Sarlo, and Komarom. Windischgratz lost both the 
campaign and his position as commander-in-chief. 
Towards the close of the spring of 1849, after be- 
sieged Komarom had been relieved by the Hungari- 
ans, and Bern had driven from Transylvania not 
only the Austrians, but the Russians who had come 
to their assistance, the country was almost freed 
from her enemies, and only two cities, Buda and 
Temesvar, remained in the hands of the Austrians. 
The glorious efforts made by the nation were at- 
tended at last by splendid successes, and the civilized 
world spoke with sympathy and respect of the Hun- 
garian people which had signally shown its ability 
to defend its liberties, constitution, and national ex- 
istence. 



432 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

It should have been the mission of diplomacy, at 
this conjuncture, to turn to advantage the recent 
military successes by negotiating an honorable peace 
with the humbled dynasty, as had been done 
before in the history of the country, after similar 
military achievements by the ancient national lead- 
ers, Bocskay and Bethlen. Gorgei, the head of the 
army was disposed to conclude peace. But the 
Hungarian Parliament sitting in Debreczen, led by 
Kossuth and under the influence of the recent vic- 
tories, were determined to pursue a different course. 
The royal house of Hapsburg, whose dynasty had 
ruled over Hungary for three centuries, was declared 
to have forfeited its right to the throne by instigat- 
ing and bringing upon the country the calamities of 
a great war. This act had a bad effect, especially on 
the army, tending also to heighten the personal 
antagonism between Kossuth and Gorgei. But its 
worst consequence was that it gave Russia a pretext 
for armed intervention. The emperor Francis Joseph 
entered into an alliance with the Czar of Russia, the 
purpose of which was to reconquer seceded Hungary 
and ultimately to crush her liberty. 

One more brilliant victory was achieved by the 
Hungarian arms before the fatal blow was aimed at 
the country. The fortress of Buda was taken after 
a gallant assault, in the course of which the Austrian 
commandant bombarded the defenceless city of 
Pesth on the opposite bank of the Danube, and thus 
the capital, too, was restored to the country. Yet 
after this last glorious feat of war, good fortune de- 
serted the national banners. The grand heroic epoch 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 433 

was hastening to its tragic end. Two hundred thou- 
sand Russians crossed the borders of Hungary, and 
were there reinforced by sixty thousand to seventy 
thousand Austrians, whom the Viennese government 
had succeeded in collecting for a last great effort. 
It was easy to foresee that the exhausted Hungarian 
army could not long resist the superior numbers op- 
posed to them. For months they continued the 
gallant fight, and it was in one of these engagements 
that Petofi, the great poet of the nation, lost his 
life, but in the month of August, the Russians had 
already succeeded in surrounding Gorgei's army. 
Gorgei, who was now invested with the supreme 
power, perceiving that all further effusion of blood 
was useless, surrendered, in the sight of the Russian 
army, the sword he had so gloriously worn in many 
a battle, near Vilagos, on the 13th of August, 1849. 
The remaining Hungarian armies followed his ex- 
ample, and either capitulated or disbanded. The 
brave army of the jLonvt^ds was no more, and the gal- 
lant struggle for liberty was put an end to by the 
superior numbers of the Russian forces. Kossuth 
and many other Hungarians sought refuge in Turkey. 
Above Komarom, the largest fortress in the county, 
alone the Hungarian colors were still floating. Gen- 
eral Klapka, its commandant, bravely defended it, 
and continued to hold it for six weeks after the sad 
catastrophe of Vilagos. The brave defenders, seeing 
at last that further resistance served no purpose, as 
the Hungarian army had ceased to exist, and the 
whole country had passed into the hands of the Aus- 
trians, capitulated upon most honorable terms. This 



434 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

was the concluding act of the heroic struggle of the 
Hungarian people, the brave attitude of the garrison 
and their commander adding another bright page to 
the already honorable record of the military achieve- 
ments of 1848 and 1849. 

As soon as the imperialists had obtained possession 
of Komarom, their commander-in-chief, Baron Hay- 
nau, began to persecute the patriots, and to commit 
the most cruel atrocities against them. Those who 
had taken part in the national war were brought be- 
fore a court-martial and summarily executed. The 
bloody work of the executioner commenced on the 
6th of October. Count Louis Batthyanyi was shot 
at Pesth, and thirteen gallant generals, belonging 
to Gorgei's army, met their deaths at Arad. Whole- 
sale massacres were committed throughout the 
country, until at last the conscience of Europe rose 
up against these cruel butcheries, and the court itself 
removed the sanguinary baron from the scene of his 
inhuman exploits. The best men in the country 
were thrown into prison, and thousands of families 
had to mourn for dear ones who had fallen victims 
to the implacable vindictiveness of the Austrian gov- 
ernment. Once more the gloom of oppression settled 
upon the unhappy country. 

Many of the patriots had accompanied Kossuth 
to Turkey, or found a refuge in other foreign coun- 
tries, and for ten years a great number of distin- 
guished Hungarians were compelled to taste the 
bitterness of exile. Kossuth himself went subse- 
quently to England, and visited also the United 
States. In the latter country he was enthusiastically 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 



435 



received by the free and great American nation, who 
took delight in his lofty eloquence. During the Cri- 
mean war, and the war of 1859 ^^ Italy, Kossuth and 
the Hungarian exiles were zealously laboring to free 
their country by foreign aid from the thraldom of op- 
pression. At last, however, the Hungarian nation suc- 
ceeded in reconquering, without any aid from abroad, 




HUNGARIAN LADY. 



by her own exertions, her national and political 
rights, and made her peace with the ruling dynasty. 
But the Hungarian exiles had their full share in the 
work of reconciliation, for it was owing to their exer- 
tions that the nations of Europe remembered that, 
in spite of Vilagos, Hungary still existed, and that 
again, at home, the people of Hungary were not per- 



436 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

mitted to lose their faith in a better and brighter 
future. Kossuth, the Nestor of the struggle for 
liberty, lives at present in retirement in Turin, and, 
although separated from his people by diverging 
political theories, his countrymen will forever cherish 
in him the great genius who gave liberty to millions 
of the oppressed peasantry, and who indelibly in- 
scribed on the pages of the national legislation the 
immortal principles of liberty and equality of rights. 

It is proper, however, to present in their regular 
order the chief events through which down-trodden 
Hungary of 1849 became from a subordinate prov- 
ince again an independent kingdom, taking part as an 
equal partner in the great realm of Austria-Hungary. 

It was not until 1854 that the state of siege inaug- 
urated in 1849 w^s abolished, and only in 1856 that 
an amnesty was proclaimed. In 1857 the emperor 
visited Hungary, and during his stay, he decreed the 
restoration of their confiscated estates to the late 
political offenders. From this time the emperor 
and the government of Vienna seemed anxious, by 
means of concessions to the national aims, to cause 
the Hungarians to forget the bitterness and strife of 
1848 and 1849. In 1858 agricultural colonists were 
given special inducements to settle in specified dis- 
tricts, and were allowed certain exemptions from 
taxation. 

In 1859 ^ most important concession was made by 
the imperial government to the spirit of nationality. 
By a ministerial order the language used in the 
higher schools was for the future to be regulated ac- 
cording to the circumstances of nationality, the pre- 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 



437 



dominance of German being thereby abolished. In 
the same year was issued what was known as the 
Protestant patent, which granted to the communes 
the free administration of their own educational and 
religious matters. 

^ In i860 the supreme court of judicature, known as 
the curia regia^ and the county assemblies were re- 
instated, and the Magyar was recognized as the offi- 
cial language. Later in the year the district called 
the Banate of Temesvar was re annexed to Hungary. 




woman's head-dress. 

In 1861 the old constitution was restored to Hun- 
gary, including Transylvania, Croatia, and Slavonia, 
and the Hungarian Diet reassembled in the old capital, 
Buda, afterwards removing across the river to Pesth. 
Within a few months, however, an address was pre- 
sented at Vienna demanding the fullest autonomy 
for Hungary. To this the emperor declared himself 
unable to accede, and the Diet was dissolved. Strin- 
gent measures were again put into force by theimpe- 



438 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

rial government, and military aid was invoked to en- 
force the collection of the taxes. 

In 1865 the Diet was opened by the emperor in 
person, and the imperial assent was given to the 
principle of self-government for Hungary. The pro- 
visions of the Pragmatic Sanction (of 1722) were pro- 
posed as the basis for the settlement of the questions 
still at issue. The Diet also demanded, however, an 
acknowledgment of the continuity of the constitu- 
tional rights of 1848. Before an imperial decision 
had been reached on this point, the war of 1866 
broke out between Austria and Prussia (allied with 
Italy), and the Diet was prorogued. The Hungarian 
troops formed an important contingent in the Aus- 
trian army which faced the Prussians in Bohemia, and 
the general in command, Marshal Benedek, was him- 
self by birth a Hungarian. Hungarians also fought 
in the army of the south, which, under the leader- 
ship of the Archduke Albrecht, made a brief but 
brilliant campaign against the Italians. In Bohemia 
the Austrians met with a decisive defeat at Sadowa 
(in July, 1866), and although in Italy Archduke Al- 
brecht gained the important battle of Custozza, and 
Admiral Tegetthoff a naval victory near Lissa (in the 
Adriatic), the general results of the summer's cam- 
paign were adverse to Austria, and brought about 
material changes in its relations to Germany and 
in its own imperial organization. 

By the peace of Prague (August, 1866) the Ger- 
man confederation was dissolved, and Austria's long 
preeminence among the states of Germany came to 
an end, the leadership in German affairs being trans- 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 



439 



ferred to Prussia. The centre of gravity of the Aus- 
trian empire (which was thus, as it were, pushed out 
of Germany) was thrown southward and eastward, 
and the most important result for Hungary was the 
constituting of the present dual monarchy of Austria- 
Hungary, finally sanctioned in February, 1867. 

Under this arrangement the constitutional, legal, 
and administrative autonomy of 1848 was secured to 



r" 



B^^xv^^'^ 




CARTS. 



Hungary, while the full control of the army rested 
with the emperor-king. The representative commit- 
tee of the Diet, which conducted and completed the 
new constitutional arrangements, was headed by Deak, 
and the presidency of the first ministry was given to 
Count Andrassy. 

In June, 1868, the emperor and empress were 
crowned at Buda-Pesth King apd Queen of Hungary, 



440 THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 

and a complete pardon was proclaimed for all politi- 
cal offenders. It is worthy of note that twice in the 
'checkered history of Hungary has Prussia been in- 
strumental in securing for the kingdom from its Aus- 
trian rulers recognition and privileges which, had it 
not been for the pressure of the Prussian attacks, 
might long have been delayed. 

In 1765, Maria Theresa, in grateful acknowledg- 
ment of the cordially loyal support given her by her 
''faithful Hungarians " in the bitter struggle against 
Frederic the Great, initiated various most important 
reforms, while just a century later, under the convinc- 
ing influence of the second great struggle with Prussia, 
the Austrian ruler again falls back on his Hungarian 
subjects as the chief support of his reorganized realm, 
and in the new dual empire of Austria-Hungary the 
ancient kingdom of the Magyars, whose wonderfully 
elastic national vitality had withstood so many vicissi- 
tudes and disasters, again takes a commanding place 
among the nations of Europe. 



BARKS ON DANUBE. 




INDEX. 



Abdi Pasha surrenders Buda to 

Duke Charles, 332 
Academy of Sciences at Buda- 

Pesth founded, 407 
Adalbert, St., Bishop of Prague, 56 
Agram, Bishopric of , founded, in 
Ahmed Pasha, besieges Temesvar, 
302 ; takes fortress, 305 ; be- 
sieges Erlau, 308 ; is repulsed, 

311 

Albert, Emperor of Germany, 
comes to the assistance of Wen- 
ceslaus, 153 

Albert, King of Hungary, dies, 
210 

Aladar and Csaba, sons of Attila, 
30 

Albert, Duke of Poland, lays 
waste Hungary, 262 

Albrecht, Archduke, 438 

Alfold (Lowland), taken by the 
Turks, 340 ; colonized by the 
Servians, 361 ; depopulated, 368 

Ali. Pasha of Buda, besieges Dre- 
gel, 299 ; clemency to two 
youths, 300 ; takes Dre'gel, 301 ; 
generosity to remains of Szondi, 
301 

Aliportug, 315 

Almos, first duke of the Huns, 36 ; 
oath to, 36 

Almos, brother of Coloman, rebel- 
lion of , 116; defeated 116; de- 
prived of sight, 116 ; rebels 
against Stephen II., 116 ; dies, 
117 



Altai Mountains, cradle of Magyar 
race, 32 

Anagarini, John, Papal envoy to 
Matthias, 236 

Andrassy, Count, 439 

Andrew, Prince, rebellion of, 60 ; 
made king, 61 ; issues rigorous 
laws, 61 

Andrew I., King of Hungary, 
102 ; victories over pagan reb- 
els, 103 ; gives one third of his 
realm to Bela, 103 ; son born, 
104 ; feud with Bela, 105 ; de- 
feated by Bela, 106 

Andrew, brother of Emeric, 123 ; 
defeats Emeric and proclaims 
himself Duke of Croatia, Dal- 
matia, Rama, and Chulmia, 123 ; 
captured by Emeric, 124 ; made 
guardian of his nephew, 125 

Andrew II., ascends the throne, 
125 ; under his wife's dominion, 
125 ; weakness of, 126 ; cam- 
paign in Galicia, 126 ; goes to 
the Holy Land, 129 ; grants 
"Golden Bull," 129; dies, 

133 
Andrew III., ascends the throne, 

149 ; death, 150 
Andrew, son of Charles of Anjou, 

betrothed to Joanna of Naples, 

164 ; assassinated, 166 
Anjou, house of — first king, 151 
Anna, daughter of Uladislaus, 265; 

betrothed to Ferdinand, son of 

Maximilian, 266 
Anna, Duchess of Teschen, mother 

of Stephen Szapolyai, 265 



441 



442 



THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 



Anna of Candal, wife of Uladis- 

laus, dies, 276 
Anna Pekry, wife of Losonczy, 

tries to raise money for her 

besieged husband, 303 
Apaffy, Prince of Transylvania, 

357 
Apors, X47 

Apotheosis of A ugnstus, 1 8 
Arnulph, King of Germany, 3g 
Arpad, first ruler of Hungary, 42 ; 
death, 44 ; house of, 97 ; ex- 
tinction of, 149 
Astrik, mission to Rome, 76 
Attila, pushes forward, 23 ; death 
of, 24 ; sons of, contend for 
possession of empire, 24 ; Ala- 
dar and Csaba, sons of, 30 
Augsburg, victory near, 48 
Aurelian, withdraws legions, 32 ; 

allows Goths to settle, 23 
Austrian government persecutes 
the Protestants, 344 ; encourages 
the Catholics, 347 ; defeated by 
Kossuth, 431 ; declared to have 
forfeited its right to Plungary, 

432 

Austria, supremacy comes to an 
end, 438 

Austria-Hungary, new kingdom 
of, 440 

Avars, first appearance, 24 ; con- 
quered by the Franks, 25 

B 

Bajan, prince of the Avars, 25 

Bajazet, on Hungarian soil, 182 ; 
defeats Sigismund, 184 

Bakacs, Thomas, archbishop, as- 
pires to the papal see, 268 ; or- 
ganizes crusade against the 
Turks, 268 ; appointed guardian 
to Louis, 276 

Balassa, Valentine, 318 ; takes part 
in the storming of Gran, 319 

Balkan Peninsula, appearance of 
Turks on, 299 

Barbara, wife of Sigismund, nego- 
giates with Ladislaus III. of Po- 
land, 193 ; imprisoned, 193 



Bardico, John, captain of the re- 
public of Venice, 180 

Bathory, Stephen, traitor to the son 
of Matthias, 261, 285 ; at battle 
of Mohacs, 288 

Batthyanyi, Count Louis, deputy 
from county of Pesth, 121 ; pres- 
ident of new ministry, 424 

Batu Khan, leads Mongolians 
across the Carpathian range, 
138 ; massacres Kuthen, defeats 
Bela at Muhi, 139 ; retreats from 
Trau, 141 

Bavaria, invaded by the Hungari- 
ans, 48 

Bazarad, Ban Michael, ruler of 
Wallachia, revolt of, 160 

Beatrice, daughter of the king of 
Naples, wife of Matthias, 234 ; 
favors candidature of Maximill- 
ian of Germany, 260 

Bela, Adalbert, brother of Andrew, 
103; defeats Henry III., 103; 
popularity of, 104 ; feud with 
Andrew, 105 ; conquers Andrew, 
106 ; proclaimed king, 106 

Bela I., rebellion against, 106 ; 
sons of, resign claim to throne in 
favor of Solomon, 107 

Bela II., son of Almos, ascends 
the throne, 117 ; Ilona, wife of, 
117 ; vengeance of, at Arad, 117 ; 
dies, 118 ; Geyza II., son of, 118 

Bela III., brother of Stephen III., 
98 ; goes to Constantinople, iig ; 
adopted by Manuel, 119 ; takes 
oath never to attack the Greek 
empire, 119 ; returns to his na- 
tive country and ascends throne, 
120 ; restores order, 120; intro- 
duction through wives of German 
and French manners, 122 ; Eme- 
ric, son of, 123 ; dies, 123. 

Bela IV., ascends the throne, 133 ; 
drives back Frederic, of Austria, 
134 ; admits Kuthen, king of the 
Kuns, and his people into the 
land, 135 ; defeated by the Mon- 
golians at Muhi, 139 ; flees to 
Spalato, then to Trau, 141 ; re- 



INDEX. 



443 



turns to Hungary, 141 ; strives to 
revive his desolated country, 
142 ; founds Buda,i44 ; triumphs 
over Frederick, of Austria, 144 ; 
dies, 145 

Belgrade, Turks defeated by Hun- 
yadi at, 214 ; taken by the Turks, 
284 

Benedek, Marshal, 438 

Beni, 43*1 

Bethlen, Gabriel, Prince of Tran- 
sylvania, leads the Czechs and 
Protestants of Hungary, and 
takes Presburg,348 ; makes terms 
with Viennese government, 348 ; 
dies, 350 

Black y 7'oop, organized by Mat- 
thias, 224 

Bocskay, Stephen, Prince of Tran- 
sylvania, leads insurrection 
against the Hapsburgs, 345 ; 
proclaimed king of Hungary by 
the Turks, 345 ; counsels a con- 
ciliatory policy, 346 

Bonafini, lectures of, at the court of 
Matthias, 249 

Brankovitch, Prince of Servia, 212 

Branyiszko, 431 

Brebiris the, 147 

Bruno, 56 

Buda, assembly of lords at, 184 ; 
under Matthias, 252 ; founded by 
Bela IV., 144 ; captured by Soly- 
man the Magnificent, 289 ; re- 
stored to Hungary, 332 ; diet at, 
386 

Buda-Pesth, 10 ; statue of Stephen 
Szechenyi at, 400 ; national ca- 
sino at, 411 ; newspaper started 
at, by Kossuth, 415 ; real capital, 
422 ; revolution in, 422 ; seat of 
government, 428 



C 



Capistrano, John, preaches a cru- 
sade against the Turks, 213 

Caraffa, 360 

Carlowitz, treaty of peace signed 
at, 334 



Carpathian range, i 

Casimir, King of Poland, 159 ; ac- 
knowledges Louis, son of Charles 
of Anjou, his heir, 162 ; dies, 171 

Census in Hungary opposed, 384 

Charles Robert, of Anjou, ascends 
the throne, 151 ; crowned the 
fourth time, 154 ; defeats Mat- 
thias Czak, 157 ; introduces chiv- 
alry, 158 ; popularity, 159 ; es- 
capes from Wallachia, 161 ; ac- 
quires Naples and Poland, 162 ; 
arranges with Cassius, King of 
Poland, that Poland should de- 
scend to Louis, his son, 162 ; 
death, 164 

Charles of Durazzo conquers Na- 
ples, 168 ; crowned at Stuhlweis- 
senburg, 177 ; death, 178 

Charles IV., of Germany, suspi- 
ious of Louis of Hungary, 170 ; 

Charles, Duke of Lorraine, routs 
the Turks, 331 ; takes Buda, 
332 ; conquers at Mohacs, 333 

Charles III. of Austria and Hun- 
gary inaugurates new policy, 368 

Church of Hungary, relations with 
the Vatican, 186 

Church of Rome, condition of, 1S7 

Christianity, victory of, 60 

Cities, franchises of, 1S6 ; privi- 
leges of, 343 

Climate, 9 

Coloman, ascends throne, 114 ; 
drives crusaders away, 114 ; 
receives Godfrey of Bouillon, 
114; increases domains, 115; 
styles himself King of Croa- 
tia and Dalmatia," 115 ; called 
IConyves., a bookish king, 115 ; 
Brother Almos rebels — 115 ; ad- 
ministers justice, 115 ; Stephen, 
son of, 116 

Congress of Vienna, 404 

Conrad, death of, 50 

Conrad II., Emperor of Ger- 
many, 88 ; war' with Stephen, 

Constantinople, capital of the 
Turkish empire, 212 



444 



THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 



Constitution, i6 ; restored to Hun- 
gary, 437 

Constitutional monarchy estab- 
lished, 424 ; enthusiasm for, 

424 

Corvinus, John, son of Matthias, 
candidate for the throne, 259 

Council of Constance, 190 

County assemblies, 437 

Court of Matthias, 250 • 

Cracow, coronation of Louis of 
Hungary at, 172 

Croatia added to Hungary, iii ; 
dissatisfaction in, 176 ; old con- 
stitution restored to, 437 

Croats, incited by the Viennese 
government against the Hun- 
garians, 420 ; rebel, 426 ; de- 
feated, 428 

Crown, double, of Hungary re- 
moved by Joseph IV. to Vi- 
enna 382 ; sent back to Buda, 
386 

Crusade, 114 ; third, 122 ; against 
the Turks, 213 ; proclaimed, 268 

Csak, Matthias, 159 ; marauding 
expeditions from the castle of 
Trecsen, 155 ; excommunication 
of, 156 ; defeated by Charles 
Robert of Anjou at Kassa, 
157; dies a horrible death, 157 

Csak (family), 147 ; extermination 

of, 159 
Csaky, Nicholas, killed, 271 
Cselenyi, John, 160 
Culture, renaissance of, 247 
Cziria regia, supreme court of ju- 
dicature, 437 
Custozza, battle of, 438 
Czechs, clamors of, against Hun- 
gary, 203 ; routed on plain of 
Morava, 146 ; joined by the 
Protestants in insurrection 
against the Hapsburgs, 348 ; 
routed by Tilly near Prague, 
348 

D 

Dacia, province of, 20 
Damjanics, 431 



Danube Steam Navigation Com- 
pany, 411 

Debruzen, seat of government, 
430 

Deak, Francis, 414 ; minister of 
justice, 424 ; heads representa- 
tive committee, 437 

Diakovar, 179 

Diet (1567) inveighs against the 
foreign soldiery, 341 ; religious 
discussion in, prohibited by Ru- 
dolph, 345 ; minority of Prot- 
estants in, 358 ; relinquishes 
the people's right, 360 ; at Buda, 
386-389 ; removed to Presburg, 
387 ; reforms institutions of 
Hungary, 423 ; removed to 
Buda-Pesth, 427 ; driven to 
Pubreczen, 430 ; declares the 
house of Hapsburg to have for- 
feited its right to Hungary, 432 ; 
dissolution of 437 ; opened by 
the emperor, 438 

Dobo, Stephen, commandant at 
Erlau, 307 ; repulses the Turks, 

311 

Dobozy, Michael, flight and death 
of, 293 

Dozsa George, made leader of cru- 
sade, 270 ; leads his men against 
the nobles, 271 ; besieges Tem- 
esvar, is defeated and executed, 
272 

Dragfy, John, Chief-Justice, at the 
battle of Mohacs, 287 

Dregel, taken by the Turks under 
Ali Pasha, 300 ; monumental 
chapel erected at, 301 



E 



Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew 
HI., 151 

Elizabeth, wife of Charles of 
Anjou, builds cathedral at 
Kassa, 162 ; goes to Naples in 
aid of her son Andrew, 162 

Elizabeth, wife of Louis of Hun- 
gary, offers to Poland her daugh- 



INDEX. 



445 



ter Hedwig as queen, 176 ; 
strangled, 179 

Elizabeth, daughter of Sigismund, 
married to Albert of Austria, 186 

Emeric, son of Stephen, 90 ; educa- 
tion of, 90 ; death of, 94 

Emeric, son of Be'la III., ascends 
the throne, 123 ; defeated by 
Andrew, 123 ; dies, 125. 

Emperor and Pope, rivalry of, 70 

Eperjes, bloody tribunal of , 360 

Erlau besieged by Ahmed Pasha, 
308 

Eugene, Duke of Savoy, assumes 
commandership of Hungarian 
forces, 333 ; annihilates a Turk- 
ish army, 334 ; defeats the Turks 
near Peterwardein, 335 ; defeats 
the Turks, 359 

Europe threatened by a new foe, 
170 



Ferdinand of Austria, elected king 
of Hungary 295 ; king of Bohe- 
mia, 338 

Ferdinand II., cousin of Matthias, 
King of Bohemia, 347 

Ferdinand V., King of Hungary, 
424 

Field of Blood, 396 

Fiume, city of, 7 ; given to Hun- 
gary by Maria Teresa, 371 

France, revolution in, 386 

Francis I., of France, stirs up Soly- 
man, 286 

Francis I., crowned, 390 ; perse- 
cutes enlightened men 396 ; arbi- 
trary government, 398 ; returns 
to constitutional government, 

399 

Francis, Joseph, enters into alli- 
ance with Czar of Russia, 432 ; 
visits Hungary, 436 

Frangepan Christopher, 267 ; con- 
spires against Leopold I., 355 ; 
beheaded, 355 

Frederic Barbarossa leads third 
crusade, 122 



Frederic, Duke of Austria, defeat- 
ed by Bela IV., 144 ; dies, 144 

French enter Hungary, 397; defeat 
the Hungarians near Raab, 398 

Fuggers, the, 279 

Fiinfkirchen (Pecs), University of, 
174 

G 

Galambocz, siege of, 191 

Galicia, campaign in, 126 

Garay, palatine of Croatia, 176 ; 

defends the queens and dies, 178 
George of Brandenburg, appointed 

guardian to Louis 276 
Gepidse, ruling people in Hungary, 

24 
Gerhard, St., death, 61 
Germans, defeat of, 44 ; victory 

of, 48 ; in Hungary, 322 
German confederation dissolved, 

438 

Gertrude, wife of Andrew II., 125 

Geyza II., ascends throne, 109 ; 
son of Bela, 1 18 ; hostilities, 118; 
dies, 118 ; Stephen III., son of, 
118 

Gisella, wife of Stephen, 69 

Golden Bull, 99 ; rights granted 
by, relinquished by diet, 360 

Gorgei, commander-in-chief of the 
Hungarian army, 430 ; surren- 
ders. 433 

Gran (Esztergrom), capital of Hun- 
gary, 68 

Gregory VII., claims submission 
from Ladislaus, no 

Grosswardein, Tomb of Ladislaus, 
112 ; Hungarian victory at, 168 

Gustavus Adolphus, 350 

Guyon, 431 

Gyula, Duke, rebellion of, 60 r de- 
feated, 60 

H 

Plajnoczi, Joseph, 393 ; arrested, 

395 
Hapsburg, house of, rulers of 

Hungary, 337 ; Rudolph of, 145 
Hatvan, diet at, 280 



446 



THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 



Haynau, Baron, persecutes the pa- 
triots, 434 

Hedervari, Francis, deserts Bel- 
grade, 284 

Hedwig, daughter of Louis of 
Hungary, marries Duke Jagello, 
174 ; becomes queen of Poland, 

175 

Henry the Fowler, 47 

Henry II. of Germany, 88 

Henry III. visits Stephen, 89 

Horvathy, John, attacks the two 
queens near Diakovar, 179 

Holubar, contest with Matthias, 
229 

Horse-racing introduced into Hun- 
gary, 41 r 

Hungarian Alps, 6 

Hungarians (early), legends in re- 
gard to origin, 27 ; invade Ger- 
many, 42 ; invade Italy, 44 ; 
incursion into Germany and 
France, 46 ; disasters of, 56 

Hungary, topography and climate, 
I ; cities of, 16 ; conquest by fhe 
Huns, 39 ; invasion by Luitpold 
and Ditmar, 44; under two kings, 
295 ; reduced to an Austrian 
province, 356 ; reorganized by 
government of Vienna, 361 ; 
material condition improved by 
Maria Teresa, 372 ; German 
made the official language, 382; 
new laws, 423 ; recovers her 
national rights, 436 

Huns, first appearance, 23; of 
Turkish extraction, 33 ; seven 
dukes of, 34 ; mode of warfare, 
37 ; conquer Hungary, 39 

Hunyadi, John, 194 ; defeats the 
Turks, 197 ; gallantry, 198 ; tri- 
umphs in the Balkan passes, 
205 ; victorious at Varna, 207 ; 
defeated, 209; governor of Hun- 
gary, 210 ; unites with the Al- 
banians, 211 ; defeated, 211 ; 
death, 215 

Hunyor, 28 ; settlement of pro- 
geny, 29 

Huss, John, 189 



Illeshazy, 344 

Ilona, wife of Bela II., 117; opens 
diet at Arad, 117; orders mas- 
sacre at Arad, 117 
Industrial and commercial status, 

16 
Iron gate (Vaskapu), 5, 411 
Ishak, pasha of Semendria, 198 
Izolda, nurse of Andrew, 165 

J 

Jacobins, Hungarian league of, 392 

Jagello, Duke of Lithuania, mar- 
ries Hedvig, a daughter of Louis 
of Hungary, 174 

James, son of Vatha, leads pagan 
rebellion against Bela I., 107 ; 
defeated, 107 

Jellachich, Ban, leader of the 
Croats, 426 ; defeated, 428 

Jesuits inaugurate Thirty Years' 
War, 347 

Joanna of Naples, wife of An- 
drew, conspires against her hus- 
band, 165 ; marries Louis of 
Taranto, 167 ; sentenced by the 
Pope, 168 

Jokai, Maurus, 422 

Joseph I., Emperor of Austria and 
King of Hungary, 366 : grants 
amnesty to the insurgents, 367 

Joseph II., sends crown back to 
Buda, 386 ; death, 386 

Joseph II. refuses to receive the 
crown of Hungary, 375 ; called 
the " kalapos " king, 375 ; wages 
war against the Hungarian na- 
tionality, 376; reigns as absolute 
sovereign, 278 ; hated by the 
people, 380 ; gives religious free- 
dom to the Protestants, 380 ; 
shocks the religious feelings of 
the Hungarians, 381 ; removes 
double crown to Vienna, 382 ; 
makes, by edict, German the 
official language of Hungary, 
382 ; declares war against Tur- 
key, 385 



INDEX. 



447 



Julius II., 268 

Juranics, Lawrence, 317 ; death 

at siege of Szigetvar, 317 
Juricsies, Michael, commander of 

Koszeg, 297 ; saves Austria, 298 



K 



Kaan, Prince, defeated by Ste- 
phen, 60 

" Kalandos " Society, 281 

Karolyi, Alexander, 335 

Kassa, battle of, 157 ; cathedral 
of, 162 ; given to the Catholics, 

344 

Kazinczy, Francis, regenerator of 
Hungarian literature, 394 ; im- 
prisonment of, 396 

Kiev, fate of, 136 

Kieystut, Prince of Lithuania, 168 

Kinizsy, Paul, captain of Matthias, 
230 ; traitor to the son of Mat- 
thias, 261; massacres Hungarian 
soldiers near Halos, 264; dies, 
264 

Kisfaludy, Charles, 285 

Klapa, 431; defends Komarom, 

^433 

Komarom, 431 ; taken by the Im- 
perialists, 433 

Kont, Stephen, of Hedervar, death, 
181 

Kopan, rebellion of, 59 ; death of, 
60 

Korogi, Peter, of the wonderful 
stomach, 277 

Kosovo, battle of, 186 

Kossuth, Louis, rival of Szechenyi, 
412 ; refuses to be bought by the 
government, 415 ; starts news- 
paper, 415 : imprisoned, 416 ; 
pardoned, 417 ; obtains permis- 
sion to edit a paper, 517; at- 
tacked by the press, 418; deputy 
from the county of Pesth, 421 ; 
asks for responsible ministry, 
421 ; Minister of Finance, 424 ; 
introduces motions in Assembly, 
427 ; head of the government, 
430 ; exile, 434. 



Koszeg, refuses to do homage to 
Solyman, 297 ; siege of, 298 

Krafi Bey, death of, 208 

Kuns (Cumanians), routed by 
Ladislaus, iii ; under Kuthen, 
settle in Hungary, 135 ; cruel- 
ties, 152 ; devastate Moravia, 170 

Kurucz-Labancz era, 357 

Kurucs, rebellion, 268; insurgents, 

357 ; receives aid from the 
French, Porte, and Transylvania, 

358 ; led by Tokolyi, 358 ; led 
by Francis Rakoczy II., 363 ; 
demands of, 394 

Kuthen, King of the Kuns, settles 
in Hungary, 135 ; massacred by 
Batu Khan, 138 



Labancz (Austrians), 357 ; surren- 
der, 358 
Laczkovics, John, 393 ; arrested, 

395 

Ladislaus, son of Bela, 109 ; as- 
cends throne, 109 ; character of , 
no; sides with Pope, no; ex- 
tends his kingdom, in ; routs 
the Kuns, in ; laws of, 112 ; 
buried at Grosswardein, 112 ; 
apparition of, 168 

Ladislaus, son of Emeric, dies, 
125 

Ladislaus IV., 155 ; defeats Otto- 
kar, 146 ; alliance with Rudolph, 
147 ; death, 148 

Ladislaus of Naples, penetrates 
into the interior of Hungary, 
186 ; defeated, 186 

Ladislaus V., King of Hungary, 
212 

Ladislaus, son of Hunyadi, assas- 
sinated, 218 

Lands of the Sacred Crown, 374 

Language, regulated according to 
nationality, 436 ; Magyar recog- 
nized as the official language, 

437 
Lazarevitch, Stephen, Prince of 
Servia, 191 



448 



THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 



Lehel, Duke, death of, 50 

Leo the Wise, Emperor of Byzan- 
tium, 39 

Leo X., Pope, 268 

Leopold I., tries to conciliate the 
Turks, 33 [ ; defeats George 
Rakoczy II., 352 ; defeated by 
the Turks near Raab, 353 ; en- 
deavors to make homogeneous 
empire, 354 ; imposes land and 
corn tax, 355 ; death, 366 

Leopold II., ascends the throne, 
3S7 ; crowned, 389 ; death, 390 

Library of Matthias, 252; destroyed 
by Solyman, 289 

Linz, Peace of, 327 

Lissa, naval battle at, 438 

Literature, leaders in, 404 

Lithuanian insurrection, 172 

Logody, Simon, heroically defends 
Shabatz, 224 

Longobards, invited by Justinian 
to settle in Pannonnia, 24 ; col- 
lision between, and Gepidas, 25 

Losonczy, Stephen, commander of 
garrison at Temesvar, 302 ; be- 
sieged by Ahmed Pasha, 302 ; 
tries to raise money, 303 ; writes 
last letters, 304 ; withdraws 
troops, 305 ; death, 305 

Louis of Taranto marries Joan- 
na, widow of Andrew, 167 

Louis Laczfy, voyvode of Tran- 
sylvania, defeated at Gross- 
wardein, 168 

Louis, son of Charles of Anjou, 
acknowledged heir to the throne 
of Poland, 162 ; ascends Hun- 
garian throne, 164 ; swears re- 
venge for his brother's death, 
166 ; subdues Naples, 167 ; puts 
an end to incursions from the 
East, 168 ; Servian victories, 
169 ; Venetian victories, 169 ; 
offered the German crown, 170 ; 
crowned king of Poland, 172 ; 
death, 174 

Louis II., son of Uladislaus, born, 
266 ; crowned, 276 ; poverty of, 
277 ; marries Mary of Austria, 



283 ; defeated and killed at Mo- 
hacs, 289 
Lukacs, Bishop of Cenad, 263 



M 



Magyars, 28 ; rebellion against, in 

997, 59 

Manuel, Emperor of the East, 
118 ; offers peace to the Hunga- 
rians, 118 ; promises to adopt 
Bela heir, 119 

Marcomanni, the, invasion of, 21 

Maria Teresa, policy of, 368 ; ap- 
peals to the Hungarians, 370 ; 
gives Fiume to Hungary, 371 ; 
improves the material condition 
of Hungary, 372 

Maritza, defeat of the Turks at, 

171 

Martinovics, Ignatius, leader of 
Hungarian Jacobins, 392 ; ar- 
rested, 395 

Marton, Father, embassy of , to Ali 
Pasha, 300 

Mary, daughter of Louis of Hun- 
gary ; betrothed to Sigismund, 
son of the Emperor Charles IV., 
170 ; proclaimed queen of Hun- 
gary, 175; marriage of, 176; 
made prisoner, 179 ; dies, 183 

Mary, widow of Louis I., flies to 
Presburg, 292 

Matthias, son of Hunyadi, pro- 
claimed king, 217 ; chivalric 
character of, 220 ; victories over 
the German knight Holubar, 
220 ; captures Vienna, 222 ; or- 
ganizes Black Troop, •2ii\ ; lays 
siege to Shabatz, 224 ; anec- 
dotes of, 226 ; campaign against 
Frederic, 229 ; sends embassy 
to France, 233 ; to Naples, 234 ; 
reforms the laws, 240 ; capacity, 
243 ; increases royal revenue, 
246 ; dies, 256 

Matthias, successor to Rudolph, 
346 _ 

Maximilian, treaty with Uladis- 
laus, 266 



INDEX. 



449 



Maximilian of Austria, King of 

Hungary, 341 
Melancholy Magyars, 49 
Merseburg, battle of, 47 
Meszaros, Lawrence, 270 
Metternich, Prince, 408, 421 
Mezid Bey, dispatched by the Sul- 
tan against the Hungarians, 198 
Miecislas, wife ef Bela, 103 
Mohacs, battle at, 288 ; slaughter 

at, 292 
Mohammed I., Sultan, 190 ; Vice- 
roy of Hervoga, 191 
Mohammed II. makes Constanti- 
nople his capital, 212 
Mongolians, invasion of, 137 ; de- 
feat the Hungarians at Muhi, 
139 ; retreat of, 141 
Money (paper), issue of, 3 cS 
Morava or March, plain of, route 

of the Czech armies, 146 • 
More, Michael, treachery of, 284 
Muhi, battle of, 139 
Murad, Sultan, death, 182 
Mustapha II., Sultan, defeated by 
Duke Eugene near Zentu, 334 



N 



Nadasdy conspires against Leo- 
pold, I ; seized and beheaded, 

355 
Nagy, Paul, 407 
Nagy, Simon, 229 
Napoleon endeavors to tempt the 
Hungarians from their Austrian 
allegiance, 397 
National Assembly, 427 
National Breeding Association, 41 1 
National casino at Buda-Pesth, 

411 
National exhibition (1885), 17 
National museum of Buda-Pesth, 

402 
Nicopolis, battle near, 183 
Nickolsburg, treaty of, 328 
Nobles arm under Bathory (Comes) 
and Csaky, 271 ; oppose the Aus- 
trian government, 343; poll-'ax 
imposed upon by Leopold I., 356 



Honveds, national guard, 427 
Nyary, Paul, leader of the op- 
position, 428 

O 

Olah, Blasius, 284 

Ostyaks, 32 

Ottakar, King of Bohemia, over- 
thrown by Bela IV. and his 
sons, 145 

Otto the Bavarian, assists Wences- 
laus, 153 ; decoyed by the vay- 
vode of Transylvania, 154 

Otto the Great, of Germany, 48 



Palace of Matthias, 252 ; sacked 

by Solyman, 295 
Palaeologos, John (Emperor of the 

East), 171 ; visits Buda, 171 
Palisna, John, dehvers up Mary; 

wife of Sigismund, to Venice, 

180 
Pannonians, 18 
Parliament (diet), 16 ; at Arad, 

117 
Patriots, persecutions of, 434 
Pazmany, Cardinal Peter, 326 ; 

primate of Hungary, 347 
Peasants, condition of, 269 ; op- 
pressive laws for, 274 
Peasant war, 267 ; end of, 273 
Perenyi, Francis, Bishop of Gross- 

wardein, 287 
Persecutions, 391 
Pesti Hirlap (Pesth newspaper), 

417 
Petchenegs, defeated by Stephen, 

79 

Peter, successor to Stephen, 100 ; 
asks help of the German em- 
peror, 100 ; takes oath of fealty 
to Germany, 100 ; rebellion 
against, lOi ; prisoner and de- 
prived of sight, 102 

Peterwardein, 287 

Petoti, Alexander, 422 ; death, 433 

Philip of Taranto, son of Cather- 
ine of Valois, at Naples, 165 



450 



THE STORY OF HUNGARY. 



Pilgrin, Bishop of Passau, 55 

Piso, Jacob, teacher of Louis 

Podrebrad, George, King of the 
Czechs, 242 

Poland, troubles in, 172 

Political divisions, g 

Porte, secretly promises aid against 
the Austrians, 357 

Pragmatic Sanction, 369 

Prague, root of the Czechs at, 
348 ; peace of, 438 

Press, liberty of, gained by the 
Revolution in 1848, 422 

Presburg, battle of, 45 ; taken by 
the Turks, 293 ; taken by Beth- 
len, 348 ; diet at, 389 

Protestantism, rise of, 320 ; loses 
ground in Hungary, 348 

Protestants, laws against, 323 ; 
persecuted, 325 ; given equal 
rights by Stephen Bocskay, 326 ; 
persecuted by the Austrian gov- 
ernment, 344 ; join the Czechs 
against the Hapsburgs, 348 ; 
freedom of worship interfered 
with, 361 ; receive religious 
freedom from Joseph II., 380 

R 

Raab, Turkish victory at, 353 ; 
French victory at, 398 

Rakoczy, George I., Prince of 
Transylvania, 351 

Rakoczy II., George of Transyl- 
vania, rebels against the Aus- 
trian rule, 334 ; retires to Poland, 
335 ; victorious over the Ger- 
mans and Turks, 352 ; defeated 
by Leopold, 352 

Rakoczy, Francis, conspires 
against Leopold I., and estates 
confiscated, 355 ; leads new in- 
surrection, 363 

Rakos, diet at, 258 ; meeting of 
National assembly at, 265 
* Raven Knight, the, 196 

Reformation, 282 ; in Hungary, 

323 
Religions, 14 
Rivers and islands, 8 



Roman influence, weakening of, 

23 

Roman emperors of Pannonian 
origin, 22 

Rozgonyi, Cecilia, heroism of, 192 

Rudolph of Hapsburg, alliance 
with Ladislaus IV., 145 ; letter 
to Ladislaus, 146 

Rudolph, son of Maximilian, King 
of Hungary, 342 ; irritated with 
the Hungarian diet, 342 ; 
leaves Hungary for 25 years, 
342 ; prohibits religious discus- 
sion in the diet, 345 

Ruprecht, Emperor of Germany, 
dies, 187 

Russ, Melchior, Swiss envoy, re- 
ceived by Matthias, 236 

S 

Sadowa, battle of, 438 

Sarolta, wife of Duke Geyza, 51 ; 
mother of Stephen, 68 

Selim, Sultan, vows to build mos- 
ques in Jerusalem, Buda, and 
Rome, 282 

Semendria, fortress of, 196 

Serbs, rebellion of, 426-428 

Seredy, Caspar, 286 

Servia, conquered by the Turks, 
182 

Shabatz, siege of, 224 ; siege of, 
by the Turks, 283 ; taken by the 
Turks, 284 

Shamanism, 53 ; Magyars, re- 
ligion of the, contains traces 
of the Parsee religion, 55 

Sigismund, husband of Queen 
Mary, hypothecates the coun- 
tries' funds, 176 ; crowned king 
of Hungary, 179 ; marches into 
Croatia and Bosnia, 180 ; makes 
alliance with Manuel, Emperor 
of the East, 183 ; defeated by 
Bajazet, 184 ; imprisoned, 185 ; 
marries Barbara, daughter of 
Count Arminius Cilley, 186 ; es- 
tablishes the Order of the Drag- 
on, 186 ; elected emperor of 
Germany, 187 ; war with Venice, 



INDEX. 



451 



188 ; travels of, igo ; offered 
the crown of Bohemia, 192 ; 
death, 193 

Sigismund Hampr, Bishop of 
Funfkirchen, 263 

Siklos, castle of Sigismund, 185 

Silistria, conquered by the Turks, 
182 

Simon Kemeny, 199 

Slavonia, old constitution restored 
to, 437 

Slovaks, sway of, 37 

Slovenes, 37 

Sobieskij John, of Poland, routs 
the Turks, 331 

Solomon, son of Andrew, 104 ; 
betrothal of, 104; ascends throne, 
108 ; feud with sons of Bela, 109; 
defeated at Mogyorod, 109; leads 
the life of a hermit, 109 

Solyman the Magnificent, 282 ; 
sends ambassador to Louis II., 
attacks Shabatz and Belgrade, 
283 ; invades Hungary, 286 ; 
defeats Louis at Mohacs and 
enters Buda, 289 ; returns to 
Constantinople, 295 ; marches 
towards Vienna, 297 ; retreats 
after siege of Koszeg, 298 ; be- 
sieges Temesvar, 302 ; invades 
Hungary for the sixth time, 311 ; 
besieges Szigetvar 

Spalato, 141 

Spanish war of succession, 364 

Standing army, 369 

States, general liieeting of, 260 

Stephen, baptism of, 57 ; rebellion 
against, 59 ; defeats Gyula and 
Khan, 60 ; first king of Hun- 
gary, 65; extinguishes the pagan 
faith, 72; founds abbeys, 80 ; 
munificence of, 82 ; constitu- 
tional reforms, 84 ; war with 
Conrad, 89 ; advice to his son, 
91 ; chooses his successor, 95 ; 
death of, 95 ; canonization, 96 

Stephen 11. , son of Coloman, as- 
cends the throne, 116 

Stephen III., son of Geyza, as- 
cends the throne, 118 ; dies, 119 



Stuhlweissenburg, capital of Hun- 
gary, 102 ; Wenceslaus crowned 
at, 152 

Svatopluk, King of Moravia, 39 ; 
death of, 41 

Sylvester II., Pope, confirms Plun- 
garian bishoprics, 74 ; gives Ste- 
phen title of " Apostolic King," 
75 ; presents crown to Stephen, 

Szalankemen, complete rout of 
Turks at, 333 

Szalkan, primate of Hungary, 267 

Szalkay, Bishop, 285 

Szapolyai, Governor of Vienna, 
sells Hungarian throne to Ulad- 
islaus of Poland, 261 

Szapolyai, Stephen, aspires to the 
throne of Hungary, 265 ; at- 
tempts to murder Uladislaus, 
266 

Szechenyi, Stephen, statue of, 
400 ; birth and history of, 402 ; 
travels, 404 ; speaks in Hun- 
garian, 406 ; founds the Acad- 
emy of Sciences. 407 ; first lit- 
erary work, 409; "Credit," 
410; introduces horse -racing, 

411 ; rivalry with Kossuth, 

412 ; aristocratic tendencies of, 

413 ; insanity and suicide, 429 
Szecsi, Desiderius, death of, 161 
Szerenc, Emeric, 280 
Szigetvar besieged by Solyman, 

312 ; death, 317. 
Szondi, George, gallant defence of 

Dregel, 299 ; asks favor of Ali 

Pasha, 300 ; death, 301 
Szoreny, Turks repulsed by Kin- 

izsy at, 264 

T 

Talpra Magyar, poem by Petofi, 
422 

Taltos, Shamanish priests, 54 

Tartars defeat Rackoczy in Po 
land, 352 

Tax, land and corn, imposed, by 
Leopold I., 355 ; oppressive, im- 
posed, 362; made permanent, 369 



452 



THE STORY OF HUNGARY, 



Tax-poll, imposed on every in- 
habitant of Hungary, 356 

Taxes, military aid invoked to 
collect, 437 

Tcheremisses, 32 

Tegetthoff, Admiral, 438 

Telegdy, Stephen, pretests against 
crusade, 268 ; killed, 271 

Temesvar, royal seat of Charles 
Robert of Anjou, 157 ; siege of 
302 ; taken by Turks, 305 ; re- 
storged to Hungary, 335 

Theiss, battle of, 106 ; regulation 
of, 411 

Thirty Years' War, beginning of, 

347 

Throne, claimants to, 151 

Thurzo,* Alexius, lends money to 
King Louis, 280 

Tilly routs the Czechs near Prague, 
348 

Tinody, Sebastian, poem on siege 
of Szigetvar, 318 

Tokolyi, head of the rebels, 358 ; 
proclaimed by the Porte king 
of Hungary, 359 ; exiled in 
Turkey, 363 

Tomoiy, Paul, defeats the Turks 
at Nagy-Olasz, 286 ; comman- 
der-in-chief at Mohacs, 287 

Torma, Andrew, heroically de- 
fends and is killed at Shabatz, 
284 

Torok, Valentine, deserts Bel- 
grade, 284 

Trajan, campaign in Dacia, 20 

Transylvania, gold and salt mines 
of, 20 ; still asserts indepen- 
dence, 306 ; forms a bulwark 
against the Turks, 320 ; under 
Bethlen, 348 ; downfall of, 
351 ; devastated by Tartar 
hordes, 354 ; refuge for Hun- 
garians, 357 ; remains a sepa- 
rate duchy, 361 ; old constitu- 
tion restored to, 437 

Trau, cattle of, 141 ; siege of, 
141 

Treaty of peace signed, 334 

Tripartite code, 274 



Turks, defeated at Maritza, 171 ; 
invade Servia, 182 ; condition 
of, 190 ; a dangerous enemy, 
197 ; defeated by Hunyadi, 200; 
victorious, 2og ; invade Albania, 
210 ; defeated by Hunyadi near 
Belgrade, 214 ; repulsed near 
Szoreny, 264 ; victorious at Mo- 
hacs, 288 ; take Buda, 289 ; 
take Presburg, 293 ; take Dre- 
gel, 301 ; take Temesvar, 305 ; 
repulsed before Erlau, 311 ; 
take Szigetvar, 317 ; routed near 
Vienna, 339 ; defeated at Mo- 
hacs, 333 ; completely routed 
near Szalankemen, 333 ; anni- 
hilated by Duke Eugene, 334 ; 
defeated near Peterwardein,335; 
oppose the increase of power of 
the house of Hapsburg, 339 ; 
seize Alfold, 340 ; treaty with 
the Germans, 351 ; attack Leo- 
pold, 353 ; invade Hungary, 
359; defeated by Prince Eugene, 

359 
Two kings, the rivalry between, 
295 

U 

Uladislaus, elected to the throne 
of Hungary, 210 ; King of Hun- 
gary and Poland, 203 ; defeated 
by the Turks, 209 ; dies, 210 

Uladislaus of Poland, elected king 
of Hungary, 262 ; birth of son, 
Louis, 266 ; Anna of Candal, 
wife of Uladislaus, dies, 276 ; 
dies, 276 

Ujlaky, Duke, molests the royal 
domains, 267 

United States enthusiastic recep- 
tion of Kossuth, 435 

V 

Vajdafy, leader of the forces of 

Sigismund, 18 1 
Valentine, John, envoy from Fer- 

rara, received by Matthias, 236 
Various nationalities, 12, 13 
Varna, Hunyadi's victory at, 208 



INDEX. 



453 



Vaskapu (Iron Gate), 5, 201, 411 

Vata, rebellion of, 60 

Vatha, leads Pagan rebellion 
against Peter, 102 ; defeat of, 
103 ; James, son of, 106 

Vatican, the relations with the 
Church of Hungary, 186 

Venice, humiliation of, i6g; beaten 
by the Hungarians, 188 

Verboczy, Stephen, leader of party 
hostile to Uladislaus, 264 ; tri- 
partite code, 274 

Vezprem, engagement at, 60 

Viddin conquered by the Turks, 
182 

Vienna, Matthias holds court at, 
249 ; peace of, 346 ; besieged, 
359 ; rebellion at, 429 

Vilagos, battle near, 433 

Visegrad, Charles of Anjou makes 
his residence at, 158 ; tourna- 
ments at, 159 ; guests at, 162 ; 
Matthias' sojourn at, 236 ; gor- 
geousness of, 254 

Voguls, 32 

Volga and Danube, country be- 
tween, 34 

Votyaks, 32 

Vorosmarty, Michael, 422 

W 

Wallachs, rising of, 385 ; led by 
Hora and Kloska, 385 ; rebel- 
lion of, 426 



Wenceslaus, King of the Czechs, 
crowned at Stuhlweissenburg, 
152 _ 

Wesselenyi, palatine of Hungary, 
heads conspiracy against Leo- 
pold I., 355 ; dies, 355 

Windischgratz, Prince, invades 
Hungary, 430 ; loses his posi- 
tion, 431 _ 

Wolfgang, tries to spread Chris- 
tianity, 55 



Zalan, Bulgarian prince, 37 

Zemplen, 395 

Zenta, defeat of Turks at, 334 

Zernivar, fortress of, 329 

Ziska, John, of Bohemia, devas- 
tates Hungary, 210 

Zoltan, son of Arpad, 38 

Zrinyi, Nicholas, commander p.t 
Szigetvar, 311 ; begs aid from 
king, 312, tempted and threat- 
ened by Solyman, 3.14 ; makes 
oration to his soldiers, 317 ; 
death, 317, 329 ; annoys the 
Turks from his fortress of Zer- 
invar, 329 ; dies, 330 

Zrinyi, Peter, conspires against 
Leopold I., seized and behead- 
ed, 355 

Zyrians, 32 




The Story of the Nations. 



Messrs. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS take pleasure in 
announcing that they have in course of publication a 
series of graphic historical studies, intended to present to 
the young the stories of the different nations that have 
attained prominence in history. 

In the story form the current of each national life 
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worthy periods and episodes will be presented for the 
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other as well as to universal history. 

It will be the plan of the writers of the different 
volumes to enter into the real life of the peoples, and to 
bring them before the reader as they actually lived, 
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not be overlooked, though these will be carefully dis- 
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It is proposed to have the series present the results 
of the latest investigations in the progressive department 
of historical research. Disputed points will, however, 
not be discussed, but, instead, the writers will present, in 
a simple, direct, and graphic style, the story of each land, 
utilizing also, to illuminate the narrative, the side lights 
that the poets and novelists have cast upon it. 

Possessing a knowledge of and sympathy with the 
youthful way of looking at such subjects, the writers will 
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design and execution that will enable the series to give 
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reading and study ; but it will not be attempted to cover 
in detail the entire ground of universal history. 

The subjects of the different volumes will be planned 
to cover connecting and, as far as possible, consecutive 
epochs or periods, so that the set when completed will 
present in a comprehensive narrative the chief events in 
the great Story OF THE NATIONS ; but it will, of course, 
not always prove practicable to issue the several volumes 
in their chronological order. 

The " Stories " are printed in good readable type, and 
in handsome i2mo form. They are adequately illus- 
trated and furnished with maps and indexes. They are 
sold separately, at a price of $1.50 each. 

The following is a partial list of the subjects thus far 
determined upon : 

THE STORY OF EGYPT. Prof. George Rawlinson. 
" *CHALDEA. Z. Ragozin. 
" *GREECE. Prof. James A. Harrison, 

Washington and Lee University. 
•' " " *ROME. Arthur Oilman. 

" *THE JEWS. Prof. James K. Hosmer, 

Washington University of St. Louis. 
" CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J. Church, 

University College, London, 
" GAUL. 
•♦ " " BYZANTIUM. Charlton T. Lewis. 

«* " " EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Alfred J. Church. 

«' " " THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley. 

" " " THE NORMANS. Sarah O. Jewett. 

" PERSIA. S. G. W. Benjamin. 
" •• " *SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan Hale. 

" " •' *GERMANY. S. Baring Gould. 

" THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 
" HOLLAND. Prof. C. E. Thorold Rogers. 
" *NORWAY. HjALMAR H. Boyesen. 
"THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stanley Lane-Poole. 
" *HUNGARY. Prof. A. Vambery. 
" THE ITALIAN KINGDOM. W. L. Alden. 
* (The volumes starred are now ready, August, 1886.) 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
New York London 

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